The Los Angeles Rams thought they could survive the loss of Von Miller this season. They never denied the impact he had as a pass rusher and run defender, but they were also confident in the players they have at outside linebacker – players such as Leonard Floyd, Terrell Lewis and Justin Hollins.
Through six games, those players have not don’t nearly enough to lessen the pain of losing Miller. That’s a major problem as the Rams enter their Week 7 bye and prep for the second half of their season.
According to Pro Football Focus, Aaron Donald leads the team with 24 total pressures. The next-closest Ram is Floyd with nine. After that, there’s a drop-off to four players – Greg Gaines, Justin Hollins, Jalen Ramsey and Bobby Wagner – with four pressures each.
Of the 56 total pressures the Rams have recorded this season, Donald has 24 of them and the edge rushers have 15. Floyd has a pass-rush grade of 60.2, which ranks 90th in the NFL among all edge rushers. Lewis ranks 144th and Hollins is 174th, per PFF’s pass-rush grade.
It doesn’t take an expert to know that simply isn’t good enough. And without generating pressure, the edge rushers aren’t creating negative plays with sacks, either. Hollins, Lewis and Floyd have combined for two sacks this season; Hollins and Lewis have one each, and Floyd has none.
For comparison, Jalen Ramsey has two sacks himself on just 12 pass-rush snaps. He also has four pressures on those 12 rushes, which is the same number as Hollins has on 86 pass-rush snaps. Granted, Ramsey’s rushes are as a blitzer and not a traditional pass rusher, but Hollins still should have more than four pressures.
And in terms of sacks, Ramsey, Bobby Wagner and Cobie Durant have combined for five sacks, more than all of the Rams’ players not named Aaron Donald combined.
There’s really no way around it: The Rams need more from their edge rushers. Otherwise, they’ll need to make a change because the current group isn’t cutting it. They won’t have the assets to acquire someone like Brian Burns, but perhaps they can put together a package for a veteran such as Robert Quinn.
They just can’t go the rest of the season relying completely on Donald to apply pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Floyd, Hollins and Lewis have to improve, and soon.
