3 reasons why OLB Michael Hoecht is due for the Floyd effect in 2024

When the LA Rams signed Michael Hoecht to the roster after the 2020 NFL Draft, he had played defensive lineman for the Brown Bears. But he had a football background that included running back. Thanks to that background, Hoecht put up a 4.6-second 40-yard dash that was a rather intriguing mark for a defensive lineman, but was little more than a fun factoid and curiosity as he attempted to earn a spot on the Rams roster.

He would earn a spot, but due to positional depth, he was less effective at the positions than many had hoped. But, he was coachable, willing to play wherever the team needed to plug him in, and was a newfound hope to bolster a lagging pass rush during the 2022 NFL season. The team and the fans learned that Hoecht was not a gimmick but a very versatile player who could rush the quarterback from his new outside linebacker position.

In the end, he played half the season at outside linebacker, while Aaron Donald was benched with injuries, and managed to put up 4.5 quarterback sacks in 2022. And yet, despite arriving undrafted and cross-training to a new position, he was still singled out by Bleacher Report and reportedly was projected to become the biggest bust risk for the Rams in 2023.

Utterly merciless.

He was not a bust. Quite the opposite in fact. He would start for the Rams defense as the outside linebacker paired opposite rookie OLB Byron Young and would show up early in 2023 as a player who was every bit the NFL pass rusher. And yet, despite the fact that this was his first full NFL season in the role, and the fact that he cross-trained from defensive tackle, he was not only recognized for his on-field production, but was the target of fans' derision and trolling in 2023.

That is in spite of 6.0 quarterback sacks, 81 tackles, and 11 quarterback hits. While he did allow a touchdown in coverage (few defensive backs can prevent a touchdown), he did manage to limit opposing receivers no better than a 77.4 percent catch rate when targeted. That is actually a solid season from an outside linebacker.

III: He is a veteran pass rusher who is underestimated

The LA Rams defensive scheme, and not the player himself, resulted in Hoecht being forced by opposing offenses to play a pass coverage role. But what many fans failed to acknowledge is how impactful Hoecht was to the overall defensive effectiveness in 2023.

Let's begin by examining Hoecht's modest beginnings. He was undrafted, a player whose original assessment placed him no better than a depth player who might be drafted into service if the starters suffered injuries. But Hoecht has proven to be more than a player stored behind the 'in case of emergency, break glass' section of the Rams roster. He rose to the occasion in 2022 when true outside linebackers struggled so poorly that several were outright released.

And yet, Hoecht outplayed them all. Well, all but veteran outside linebacker Leonard Floyd, that is.

In 1.5 seasons and just over 1300 defensive snaps, Hoecht has put up 10.5 QB sacks and 117 tackles. Those are pretty good numbers for a guy who arrived to the NFL at a completely different position and well-practiced skill set.

Hoecht was extended on a one-year deal this past offseason. He is competing for playing time with new rookies Jared Verse and Brennan Jackson. While he will likely fall back to a backup role, his presence alone will afford this defense something that it has not had in the past two years.

He will be a very capable backup.

II: He has been tasked with every role of the position

While the slip ups seem to be the most recollected task by Michael Hoecht that fans cite, the truth of the matter is that he has been a rather remarkable success story that not only gives credit to himself in his ability to pivot from a three-point stance as a down lineman to a two-point stance 3-4 outside linebacker, but every snap of the football bears witness to the quality of coaching that he has received along the way to get there.

One of his main positional coaches was current Rams Defensive Coordinator Chris Shula.

As such, Shula knows fully what his veteran outside linebacker is capable of, and what he is not capable of. Knowing this, he directed the team to re-sign Hoecht to the 2024 defense. Hoecht's return was not something that the team had originally planned to do, it turns out:

That was a curious take, because the team needed to bolster the pass rush this season. While Hoecht's 6.0 quarterback sacks did not lead the NFL, they are six sacks that the defense will not need to find elsewhere.

But above and beyond what Hoecht's stats were in 2023, the team is wise to ensure that a guy who can perform as a starter in both the regular season and in the postseason remains with this defense. After all, Hoecht did manage to put up three tackles, and 1.0 QB sacks against the Detroit Lions. That is the type of experience that could prove to be quite valuable in 2024.

I: He has been targeted more frequently than any other teammate in pass coverage

While every player on the LA Rams defense is tasked to perform whatever the position and situation calls for throughout the course of a football game, there is a misconception that all players, and all roles, are created equally on a team's roster. I can assure you that they are not. In many ways, the same decoys and complex blocking schemes found in the offensive playbook have equally complex and sophisticated counterparts in a defensive playbook.

For defensive linemen, there are those whose primary task is to stuff the run and gobble blockers, preventing offensive linemen from impairing the effectiveness of linebackers who lay in wait to make the plays. So to there are those pass rushers who can pin their ears back and race after the quarterback, while others must be content to hold their ground, remaining in position to stop a fleeing quarterback from advancing the football on a scramble.

In a 3-4 odd man front defense, invariably one outside linebacker is tasked with rushing the passer, while the other is tasked with pass coverage. So why mention that here when discussing Hoecht? He was ruthlessly tasked with pass coverage. Why does that make a difference? One of the main reasons that former Rams OLB Leonard Floyd ascended to become a significant force in the Rams pass rush is that the team removed him from so many pass coverage duties. Floyd's number of targets dropped from 17 to seven when he joined the Rams. That allowed Floyd's sack totals to skyrocket from 3.0 to 10.5.

Throughout his NFL career, Floyd has never been targeted more frequently than 17 times. Michael Hoecht was targeted twice as often in 2023. But do the number of targets truly correspond to an outside linebacker's effectiveness at getting after the quarterback? Let's check out the data from 2023 to see if there is any relational correspondence.

So what does the above data table reveal about the way the Rams defensive scheme exposed Hoecht to an incessant onslaught of passes targeting him? As you can see by the data table above, no other top-tier outside linebacker was targeted anywhere close to the number of passes thrown at Hoecht. Hoecht was targeted anywhere from twice to more than ten times more frequently than his peers. And yet, he managed not only to keep completions under 80 percent, but he put up more tackles than any other top-tier outside linebacker in 2023.

Hoecht's limits in 2023 are known, yes. But his ability to start in the NFL is a known fact too. The reputation among some fans that Hoecht is inept or a defensive liability was simply an optical illusion. The Rams' defensive scheme placed him into pass coverage excessively. So what can the team do to correct that flaw?

The fix lies in the Floyd-like effect

So how do the Rams fix this problem? Relegating Hoecht to the bench is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Hoecht can play, and by comparison is a competent edge rusher. But the team cannot continue to rely on Hoecht to blanket top NFL wide receivers in one-on-one pass coverage this season.

What can be done?

When the LA Rams added veteran outside linebacker Leonard Floyd in 2020, the team was able to instantly amplify his pass rush effectiveness by limiting his role in pass coverage. Whether that translates into a nickel backer playing behind him to assume the pass coverage tasks, or simply putting Hoecht into a more traditional hand-in-the-dirt defensive end role on passing downs, there are a variety of ways for the team to get him out of the pass coverage role when it's obvious that the opposing offense plans to target him.

After all, I refuse to believe that if the Top-9 edge rushers average less than 25 percent the number of targets as Hoecht, that the defense cannot rescheme him out of so many passes thrown at him. And the team already has experience in how instantly that reformulation can take effect. When Leonard Floyd's number of targets fell from 17 to seven, his quarterback sack totals rose from 3.0 to 10.5.

Just to place this dilemma in proper perspective? Over the course of three seasons, OLB Leonard Floyd was targeted 31 times. That 31 passes thrown his way over three years is equal to the number of times Michael Hoecht was targeted in 2023 alone. Floyd allowed 27 of those passes to find their target, resulting in 246 yards.

Conversely, Hoecht only allowed 24 passes to find their mark for 232 yards. The lone difference is that Hoecht did allow one touchdown.

I believe that the Rams will find a way to free up Hoecht from pass coverage duties, and in the process free him up to tee off on opposing quarterbacks once more.

Thanks for reading.