LA Rams Leonard Floyd had far better 2021 than you may realize

Rams shifted Floyd’s QB sack role to Miller

The trouble is that fans’ perspectives are drawn to sacks, and when the LA Rams made the switch to feature Von Miller as the fourth pass rusher, Floyd’s heroics off the edge dissipated. Floyd recorded just 2.0 quarterback sacks in the last eight games for the Rams, while Miller put up 5.0 quarterback sacks.  Floyd put up 30 more tackles, and Von Miller put up 31 tackles.

Combine the two players’ production for the Rams and what do you get?  Combined, the pair put up…

14.5 quarterback sacks and 101 tackles.  That is about what you would have expected from Floyd’s sack totals, plus Floyd and a second OLB in terms of total tackles.

Now, before the comments section blows up with accusations of me equating Von Miller’s performance with the LA Rams as just some ham-and-egger off the street outside linebacker who the Rams can fill with just anybody? I’m not.

I just want to strip away the emotions and bias here. The entire fanbase was so hell-bent on resigning Von Miller to the team for 2022 and beyond, do any of the viable alternatives have a chance of being objectively assessed?

So many had decided that re-signing Von Miller was the only correct answer for the Rams’ offseason efforts, that any other plans are discounted from the incorrect assumption that there is only one answer. Even LA Rams GM Les Snead gets it. The offseason goal is not to re-sign Von Miller. Rather it is to restore those tackles and sacks to the defense. The Rams may already be on that track.