11 Los Angeles Rams Who Won’t Return Next Season
The Rams’ window for contending is closing as Matthew Stafford gets another year older, and the young team will look to hold onto as many key pieces as possible.
The Los Angeles Rams proved in 2023 that they’ll have the potential to contend for as long as Matthew Stafford can keep playing at a high level. They’re not likely to enter a season as the Super Bowl favorite any time soon, but they’ll be a threat to make the playoffs, at which point anyone can make a run.
That means Sean McVay and company will do everything they can to keep the bulk of this roster together for the near future. This offseason will be more about fine-tuning things than making any big splashy moves.
But even with that in mind, every NFL offseason is going to bring a lot of roster turnover. And these 11 Rams are players that fans can expect to be saying goodbye to.
Mike Hoecht is set to become an unrestricted free agent, and there’s no chance the Rams should be bringing him back.
You have to give him credit for playing over 1,000 defensive snaps in 2023, for sure, but just being on the field isn’t enough. He graded out at 90th among 112 qualifying edge defenders on Pro Football Focus (PFF).
He did notch 6.0 sacks, setting a new career-high mark, but he was inconsistent at best, and his terrible run defense made it clear that he can’t be an every-down defender.
That sack total is probably going to get some other team to overpay for his services this offseason, but the Rams’ staff has seen first-hand that it won’t be hard to find a cheaper option who can offer at least as much as, and likely more than, Hoecht did.
