3 Rams players who are on the hot seat following NFL Draft

3. Michael Hoecht, EDGE

The most obvious of all obvious answers. Sorry Michael. But when the team you play for uses their first two picks – one of which was their first Round 1 pick in a decade – at your position, the writing's on the wall. Hoecht was bad last year: after an encouraging 2022, Hoecht took a step back in his third season, finishing the year ranked as Pro Football Focus' 90th best edge rusher (out of 112). To his credit, only two players on defense played more snaps than Hoecht, but you can see why the Rams felt such a pressing need to address the position. He did have a career-high seven sacks, but he missed almost 20% of his tackles – after having only one missed tackles through the first two years of his career, he had 16 alone last season. And a lot of that is sample size related, but still – his stats speak for themself.

And maybe PFF knows something we don't, because when you play with their lineup tool, Hoecht's name never shows up. Regardless of what personnel you adjust it to, he doesn't appear. It's either Verse, or Fiske, or both. Considering where they were drafted, "both" feels like the most likely scenario. If the Rams feel like there are enough pass-rushing snaps to go around, there's a world where Hoecht could have a more singular role on obvious passing downs. But the Rams' biggest goal of the offseason was to improve at his position, and they did just that. The NFL is, as they say, a business.