Biggest Rams weakness for 2022 NFL season: Edge Rusher
Last season, the Rams had two of the best pass rushers in the NFL. The Rams have had Aaron Donald for a while now, and with the Rams, he has proven to be one of the best defensive tackles in the history of the NFL, but they also landed Von Miller in a trade from the Broncos.
2020 was a bit of a scare for Von Miller as he missed the entire season with an ankle injury, but he seemingly bounced back and seemed like himself once again.
With Von Miller playing good football, and the Broncos looking to sell, it made for a perfect opportunity. With Donald destroying centers and guards on the inside, and Miller blowing by tackles on the outside, it made for a devastating duo.
Even Leonard Floyd played well and arguably had his best season.
The duo of Miller and Donald made the defense one of the best in the NFL and ultimately helped push the Rams to a Super Bowl.
While Los Angeles would have loved to have kept Miller and Donald on the same team, things didn’t turn out that way. Miller entered free agency following his contract expiring. While Miller made it clear on social media that he wanted to return to Denver, he instead signed with the Bills in a contract that’s worth $120 million over six years.
With Miller gone, it puts Ram’s edge-rushing group in an interesting situation. The current starting edge rushers for the Rams will likely be Leonard Floyd and Justin Hollins.
Floyd did have a good season last year, but the one caveat was that he was playing opposite of Von Miller, who took the weight a bit off Floyd’s shoulders. With Miller now in Buffalo, Floyd will have to step up in a big way as he will now be the number one pass-rushing option for the Rams.
In terms of Floyd’s counterparts, there isn’t much to write home about. Outside of Miller and Floyd, the players who received the most edge-rushing snaps for the Rams last season were Terrell Lewis, Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, and Justin Hollins.
Okoronkwo is now in Houston with the Texans, which means that the combination of Lewis and Hollins will be picking up the slack. The reason that Hollins will likely be playing more snaps this season than Lewis, despite Lewis playing more last year, is because of how poor Lewis played last season.
After having a solid rookie season on very limited snaps, he struggled quite a bit in his sophomore season with an increased number of snaps. Whoever does end up starting opposite of Floyd, be it, Lewis or Hollins, there should be a decent amount of concern.