LA Rams OLB Leonard Floyd ankle surgery has him back on track

If you needed a reason to believe that the LA Rams pass rush may not be as cupboard shelf bare as we originally thought, I think that the latest news certainly qualifies. If you need a bit of refreshing about the LA Rams pass rush, no worries. We have you covered.  After all, the LA Rams secondary was not exactly the best version of itself. And in the middle of the LA Rams defense, the team went light on payroll, hoping that the defensive front could do most of the run-stuffing.

So how did the team do on the edge? The rotation of outside linebackers, who at times seemed to be a different rotational battle each week, were counted upon to aid defensive lineman Aaron Donald get to the quarterback.  We can view the numbers of the outside linebackers who are returning for another season with the team below:

Name                         Snaps      Tkls      Sacks
Leonard Floyd           932           70          9.5
Terrell Lewis             367           22          3.0
Justin Hollins            223           22          2.0
Chris Garrett                  4              0          0

While not overwhelmingly impressive, all four players return in 2022.

Quick and dirty analysis of Rams OLB stats

So now that we know the totals, did you know that 7.5 of Leonard Floyd’s sacks occurred in the first half of 2021? In his last eight games, he put up just 2.0 sacks? Did you know that both of Justin Hollins’s quarterback sacks were recorded in his first game? In fact, after just three games, Hollins missed nine games for the LA Rams defense?

We had discussed the outside linebacker position before the NFL Draft, and the conclusion was that the Rams had strong potential with returning players to fill the needs of the new season, but that the depth of the position was incredibly shallow. So the Rams needed to address the position during or immediately following the draft.