Throughout the first half of the season, Rams fans were wondering where Leonard Floyd was. He went without a sack in the first six games, was hardly pressuring the quarterback and was missing too many tackles.
Floyd wasn’t to blame for the Rams’ slow start to the year, but it took him a little while to get going in 2022 after he was poised for a big year now that he was fully healthy; he played through an ankle injury all season in 2021.
In the second half of this season, he flipped a switch. He looked like a completely different player from Week 12 on, and the numbers are there to back it up.
According to Pro Football Focus, Floyd had just 19 pressures in the first 10 games of the season. In the final seven weeks, he registered 35 pressures. His 35 pressures tied him for fifth among all NFL players in the final seven weeks of the season.
Oddly, his pass-rush grade from PFF was only 64.6 in that stretch despite him consistently hurrying quarterbacks off the edge. For comparison, he had just six fewer pressures, eight fewer hurries and two more QB hits than Micah Parsons from Week 12-18, and Parsons’ grade was 90.4 during that span.
As a whole, this wasn’t one of Floyd’s better seasons. His 65.7 season grade is his lowest since 2017 and the second-lowest of his NFL career. He did improve as a tackler, though, only missing six tackles after whiffing 18 times last season.
Heading into an uncertain offseason in 2023, Floyd could be considered a potential cap casualty with a savings of $15.5 million if he’s cut after June 1, but perhaps his second-half performance will keep him around for another season.
