The Rams cut ties with Leonard Floyd this offseason, leaving them without a single veteran edge rusher on the roster. Michael Hoecht, surprisingly, is the most experienced outside linebacker on the team and he only played the position for half of last season.
Hoecht is expected to stay at outside linebacker in 2023 and will potentially be a starter, but the Rams have a lot of young edge rushers on the depth chart who are waiting to prove themselves.
If he can stay healthy and play the way he did at the end of last season, Hoecht should be one of the team’s more important defenders this year.
2022 stats
- 36 tackles
- 4.5 sacks
- 4 tackles for a loss
- 9 QB hits
- 24 total pressures
- 65.4 overall grade (PFF)
Position group
The worst position group on the Rams’ roster is outside linebacker. It’s not only inexperienced, but it’s also lacking high-end talent. Leonard Floyd is gone, leaving the Rams without their top edge rusher.
Los Angeles did add Byron Young, Nick Hampton and Ochaun Mathis in the draft, but not a single veteran has been signed to give the position some stability and a safety net in case the younger players don’t pan out in 2023.
Hoecht will have a good chance to start in Week 1, but he’ll need to beat out the likes of Young, Keir Thomas, Daniel Hardy and others. It’s been a while since the Rams had this little proven talent at edge rusher, so it’s going to be a legitimate open competition.
2023 outlook
As fun as it was to see Hoecht at edge rusher in the second half of last season, he’s not a guy who’s going to blow by the left tackle with his speed or walk a right tackle into the lap of the quarterback. He can anchor the edge of the defensive line and generate pressure at times, but you don’t necessarily want him as your primary edge rusher on third-and-12.
He went through some growing pains in his transition to outside linebacker last season, too. When teams utilized jet motion, Hoecht was left out of position a lot. Hopefully he’s learned from those mistakes to become a more well-rounded defender because the Rams will need him in both phases this year, against the run and the pass.
Hoecht has a lot to prove in 2023 and while he’ll begin the year as an edge rusher, it’s not out of the question for the Rams to use him as a defensive end or defensive tackle at times.
