LA Rams: It’s more than Terrell Lewis’ knee that is troubling

The best ability is availability

In his rookie season, he began the season on injured reserve, and would not return to the team’s active roster until mid-October 2020. Since it was a condensed training camp, the absence would be detrimental to any plans that the Rams may have developed towards integrating him into the defense quickly.

Los Angeles Rams

In the meantime, the team had Samsun Ebukam, Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, and signed ILB/OLB Justin Hollins off waivers from the Denver Broncos. Hollins, like veteran Leonard Floyd, was familiar with Staley’s defense, as he had played for him in Denver (Floyd played for Staley with the Chicago Bears). That gave the defense enough players to allow Lewis to get things right, heal up, and return when he was able.

Lewis did exactly that, for six games. He flashed that tremendous potential upside in a game against the Seattle Seahawks on November 15, 2020. In that game, Lewis played 28 defensive snaps and sacked quarterback Russell Wilson two times. It appeared that Terrell Lewis was well on his way to realizing that potential after all.

Well, appearances can be deceiving sometimes.

Lewis would play against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the following week and would get a quarterback hit on Tom Brady. That would be it for a while. Four consecutive weeks on the inactive list as the team tried to get his knee stabilized. He would play just 35 more defensive snaps in 2020, including post-season games. His knee had become problematic.