LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Rams have the highest chance at the No. 1 seed in the NFC, according to ESPN Analytics, but don't tell head coach Sean McVay that.
The 9-3 Rams, who are currently hold the No. 2 after losing to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, have a 30% chance to end the season in the top spot. According to ESPN Analytics, the Green Bay Packers enter Week 14 with the second-highest chance at 17%.
"I don't track it in the least bit," McVay said on Wednesday. "It's not important to me at all. What's important to me is us being totally and completely present today. We're not even in ... We have no guarantee to play past 17 games."
The Rams did hold the top spot in the conference entering Week 13 after beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday Night Football. After that game, McVay said while it is "a good thing" to be in that spot through 12 weeks of the season, he wasn't focused on the standings.
And on Wednesday, when asked about the potential of ending the season with a first-round bye in the playoffs, McVay had the same mindset.
"Last week serves as a phenomenal reminder of man, you get all ahead of yourself, we won't even be in the playoffs if we're not careful," McVay said. "And so, that's where none of that matters to me at all."
ESPN's FPI currently gives the Rams a 92.8% chance to make the playoffs and a 50% chance to win the NFC West. ESPN Analytics also gives Los Angeles the best chance to make (23.1%) and win (13.9%) the Super Bowl.
After the Rams' loss in Week 13, the 9-3 Chicago Bears took over the No. 1 seed because they have a better record (6-2) in the conference than the Rams (4-3). The Rams hold the tiebreaker over the 9-3 Seattle Seahawks after beating them in Week 11. The teams play again in Seattle in Week 16.
But while McVay reiterated that he is not focused on potential playoff seeding, he did acknowledge that he would be happy if the Rams kept winning and put themselves in that situation.
"Every game that we play, we go in there with the intentions to try to win the game," McVay said. "If you said, would I be happier if we ended up being able to be in a position where that means we won more games that maybe gave you a chance to get an automatic bid to the division round? Yeah, of course."
Both McVay and quarterback Matthew Stafford pointed out that the Rams did not have a first-round bye when they won Super Bowl LVI during the 2021 season.
"We're just trained to do whatever's right in front of us and if that is go play a game for this seed or all the marbles or whatever it is, we go do it," Stafford said. "If it's to sit and rest and take care of yourself, you do that.
"But we're not anywhere near that conversation at the moment. So at the moment we're laser focused on Arizona and trying to get the result that we want."