LA Rams can take heart in how quickly the team reworked this group

In 2022, the LA Rams roster had swelled the ranks of the pass rushers with a pair of accomplished NFL stars in All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald, outside linebacker Leonard Floyd, and a handful of young edge rushers who were tasked with developing into NFL starters someday, and who could rotate in and shoulder some of the load that season. By the end of the season, the team had struggled to a 5-12 finish, almost the entire edge rushing room had been emptied, and the team was forced to cross-train undrafted defensive tackle Michael Hoecht into an outside linebacker mid-season.

At the end of the 2023 NFL season, All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald decided to call it quits, retiring from the team.

For NFL analysts, they simply viewed the Rams roster and drew the logical conclusion. The team posted 50 quarterback sacks in 2021, good for third-best in the NFL. The number dropped to 38 in 2022, a number that was only good enough for 21st-best in the NFL. In 2023, the team managed to improve to 41 quarterback sacks, but fell to the 24th-best pass rush in the NFL. In 2024, the team once again managed 38 quarterback sacks, and was once more no better than 21st best in the NFL. But that was the regular season.

When the team competed in the 2025 NFL Playoffs, the long dormant pass rush erupted with a fury. In just two games, the team managed to post 16 quarterback sacks, and those sacks came against two of the NFL's better offensive lines.

The sudden dominance along the line of scrimmage was not as much of a surprise as you may first think. The team's young pass rushers put tremendous pressure on opposing quarterbacks all season. But the group was slow to calibrate to the right range, timing, and communication required to bring opposing quarterbacks to the ground.

They found their range in the postseason:

The team managed to pivot from zeros to heroes in two years. You can point to the team's willingness and proficiency to draft well. In 2023, the team drafted Tennessee OLB Byron Young and Wake Forest NT Kobie Turner. In 2024, the team doubled down by selecting Florida State OLB Jared Verse and DT Braden Fiske. The team re-signed OLB/DT Michael Hoecht, added former Dallas Cowboys DT Neville Gallimore, and even hitched Mr. Irrelevant Desjuan Johnson.

The group posted 38 quarterback sacks in 17 games in 2024. But the same group posted 16 QB sacks in just two postseason games.

The Rams front office managed to do all of this in just two seasons via the NFL draft. So there is every reason to expect the front office to manage a similar restoration of the team's offense. The team struggled to score in 2024, to the point where the young defense did the heavy lifting to sustain success in the latter half of the season.

The Rams had already begun to retrofit the offense. The team has three offensive linemen, two productive wide receivers, two tight ends, two running backs, and a young quarterback added in the past two seasons. So a concerted effort initiated in the 2025 NFL Draft could have immediate results.

Is that how the team will approach this offseason? The front office needs to invest in offensive playmakers, and the best and most effective means of doing so is the draft. We have a lot of ground to cover this offseason, but the stage appears to be set for another exciting draft for the Los Angeles Rams.

As always, thanks for reading.

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