December 24, 2024 • 32 mins
On this episode of Rams Revealed, Los Angeles Rams outside linebacker Michael Hoecht talks about his journey with the team, being a veteran and leader at just 27 years old, and what makes each of his teammates special.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
But hello and welcome to a special holiday edition of
Rams revealed presented by Sleep Number, the rams official sleep
and wellness partner.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm your host, JB.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Long as you know, the Rams have won four games
in a row, and they'll close out the regular season
with back to back home games at SOFI Stadium against
division rivals, first up, the Arizona Cardinals. To talk about
all that in a preview Week seventeen is a repeat guest.
Now he's twenty seven years of age, he's a Super
Bowl champion, he's still Canadian.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
He's Michael Hoyt. What's up, buddy. Good to be here, JB.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
And yeah, it's been definitely a couple of years since
I've done it, and lots changed since then, but you know,
thankfully still here, still love and playing ball here for
the Rams.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, our setting has changed for sure. How do you
like the new digs?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, I mean, not only is it in Woodland Hills now,
but you guys seem to be well set up and
slowly unpacking.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
But no, it's great.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Episode seventy one was your first appearance back in October
of twenty one, your rookie season. Now we're in a
year for the Michael Hoyd Experience. Thanks for coming back
for episode one thirty two.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, I mean it feels like I've played that many
games and the means does it really? But well, I
mean it's been every year has just written its own story,
from you know, the first year, special team, super Bowl,
the Matthew Stafford trade, first year of all that, and
then slowly transitioning into more of like the outside linebacker
role last year, getting a lot of playtime under my belt,
and then you know, this year kind of putting together
(01:27):
this new Cheetah package, the Rhino package, putting different people
in different spots.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
But a lot's changed since then, but it's been fun.
Do you want to host this show? I feel like
you're better at it than I am. Take it away?
Where should we go next?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
No, it's I just will take care a Zona on Saturday.
And that's pretty much all focused on right now.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Just a couple of guys who bailed on their finance
careers to try and make life in the NFL where
it's gonna.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Be said right with you again? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Uh, why don't we start with bare chested in twenty
degree weather?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
What was that all about? Whose idea was.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
That honestly, I got off, I got off the plane,
I felt the temperature, and I like, this feels like
a shirt off game, and so walked out their pregame.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
So I always me and.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Jonah Williams always used to walk the field two times
before the game. And he was undrafted with me Peacequater
first year, made it year two, Super Bowl that year have.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Kind of been around.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
He's over in Detroit now, but that was kind of
our tradition before every single game is we would walk
two laps around the field, and so I kind of
used and I still do it even though he's now
with Detroit, but I use that to walk with the
shirt off, just to make sure that this was going
to be all right. So by the time I made
it around one walk, I was like, all right, we
got this. This is fine.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
How bad was it? It really wasn't that bad.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Once you get warmed up and you start moving a
little bit, and between us you have some vacline on
your arms to kind of keep the heat in a
little bit, but it's really not that cold once you
get going. It's when the sun went down start. I
think like when it switched from the third to the
fourth quarter. I think you can kind of tell. On
the sidelines, people were starting to get me like, all right,
we're missing the sun a little bit, let's turn the
(02:59):
heaters on the bench up.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
But not once you get moving, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I was impressed, not because you were brave enough to
do it, but because you're brave enough to stay out there.
Once Byron Young joined you and took his shirt off too,
I feel like that's the point where I'm like going
back in the locker room, not wanting to be compared
to his physique.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
I mean, you know, we're all used to it because
he always has the crop tops going on. But you know,
it was kind of a cool moment where, you know,
I sort of started it, and then next thing, you know,
all the outside linebackers have our shirts off, and you know,
we're yelling and we're screaming, and it just sort of
gave us a little spark to start the game. Okay,
so they took it as a challenge.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I don't know if it's a challenge. I think they
just like participating.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I didn't know this, but some of the response on
social media cued me into I guess teams that do
this are players that do this, it often leads to
a loss, So on behalf of everyone who enjoys like
the cold weather foolishness. Thank you for inverting that trend
and making it okay for teams going forward to do this.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, I mean if I had known that, I probably
wouldn't have done it. I'm sure glad we could flip
the script. There other reflections like concrete football ones. On
the win that was your ninth of the season.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, I mean it was sloppy first half.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
You know, I think defensively is all I'm really going
to speak for here because that's primarily where I spend
all my time other than that one snap of tight
end in twenty two. But you know, we missed some
tackles on the third down. We were good on fourth down,
which is great, and then made a couple of adjustments
at halftime, came out and really just you know, I
think everybody there kind of had a bit of a
(04:28):
realization at halftime that we have a six hour flight
ahead of us, and if we don't win this game
that six hour flight it's going to feel like a
twenty hour flight. So, you know, from seeing what they
were having success on, we wanted to make sure we
tackle the checkdowns and then you know, keep applying pressure
and the more we can just feed Matthew the ball
like they're going to get in the end zone.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
How do you clean something like that up in game?
It seems so obvious. It's not like you went out
there being like, we don't need to tackle in the
first half. It's just Aaron Rodgers and the Jets will
be fine.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I think it's more just you know, being cognizant of
where the leaks are coming out of the backfield and
taking good pursued angles, knowing where your help is. You know, joking,
Ilia always tells us good defense is knowing where your
help is, whether that's where your leverage is, where your
gaps are, and you know when you're going to make
a tackle. There's good miss tackles and bad miss tackles.
A bad miss tackle is you miss it and he's
(05:15):
outside of your leverage. A good miss tackle is you
may not bring him down, but you miss to your
leverage and somebody's going.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
To be right there to bring him down.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You know those next gen route charts that you see
for like Puka Nakua, Cooper Cup, it looks like just
a random plate of spaghetti or something like that. I
would love to see one for you on your like
week to week defensive alignment. You talked a little bit
in passing about how your role has evolved on this defense,
Slow that Downforce. Describe what you are doing in twenty
(05:42):
twenty four for this RAMS defense.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
I mean, it's a little bit of what am I
not doing at this point? And I think we just
find good matchups and ways that we want to attack
their protections. It primarily comes up in third the third
down world where we're going to have what we call
our cheat of package. It's me Verse B why and
then Kobe and Fisk on the inside, and we just
get creative. We have our Thursday meetings where we all
(06:08):
just kind of talk about how we want to set protections,
what their ow line is not good at, what they
are good at, different ways that we can force them
to have to account for all five of us. But then,
you know, drop two of us out, drop one of
us out, drop you know, there was a couple of
times where Fisk was dropping out and all of us
are dropping out.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
We're just rushing three. So because we're all.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Very versatile and we're all young, and you know, throughout
the season, we were kind of figuring out what everybody's
good at, what people aren't good at, and we've sort
of come up with this package where everybody can do
everything and they have to account for everything, and it's
it's hard to sort of figure out, and it's going
to change week to week, and it's a really really
fun way to attack offenses.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I agree with you still young, but you're the old
guy in the group. Now. Yeah, it's weird. How fast
did that happen? Yeah, I mean it happened. You know.
It was twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Two, and Leonard Floyd was show me everything that I
needed to know, and Trell Lewis was here justin Hollins
and then I blinked and the room was pretty much
all rookies and or guys in the second year guys.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
You know, we had a new coach, and.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Then I was kind of the old guy in the room,
which you know, it was interesting for me to sort
of take on that role, and you know, I feel
like I had to grow up pretty quickly and start
to really understand what it means to not only be
in this defense but also be on the older side
of this defense. And then coming back this year. You know,
(07:34):
I'm pretty sure on the longest ten yured ram who's
been here consecutively. So I've been here five years straight,
and you know, I've wanted to take that to heart,
allow that to be like, if I can help the team,
just provide any sort of leadership or connection to that
twenty one super Bowl team, or just a guy that's
been around maybe not this building, but this organization and
(07:55):
be able to you know, how does the training room work,
how do the wait, how to weight room work?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
How does you know what's the best way.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
To do meals, the schedule, all the off the field
stuff that comes with being in Los Angeles as a
big market. You know, that's a lot of value that
I can provide that. You know, if I think a
year and a half ago, if you ask me like, oh,
are you going to be the guy that's going to
give all that of information, be like, no, I'm only
three years.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I've only been here three years.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
But then all of a sudden people started coming to
me for answers, and I had all the answers to
those types of questions, and I was like, Great, this
is a role I can thrive in.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
It sounds like you wear that mentor mantle comfortably here
and you describe that. Yeah, I mean, it's more just
a comfortability with this defense, and the terminology has been
been very similar, and it's just been I'm also a
football junkie, so I'm just gonna, you know, try and
understand everything more than just memorize it. And I'm gonna
be able to and I want to know the intricacies
(08:48):
of why we're calling what we're calling, and you know,
just how the defense is really built. I definitely nerd
out on that and you don't necessarily need that to
play really well, but it's more just fun for me.
We tap into that nerdiness. So that's what this is
all about. I think some have observed that you've got
coaching caliber chops. So can we use this moment in
time for like some hot breakdowns because with these new
(09:11):
pieces you're running mates. I just want to get your perspective,
Jared Verse, so far, what's your scatting report?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, I mean he's a beast if you just kind
of like I think I said this after the Minnesota game,
but you know, there's certain guys that just pop on tape,
and he's.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
One of them.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
You know, if the you know, you'll see better than
you hear. And if you just sort of watch him
play snap in and snap out, you're just gonna see
high motor, you know, long arms, you know, plays hard
and is just learning how to like control all that aggression.
And but he's a really really fun guy to be around.
He's you know, extremely loud, always trying to you know,
(09:47):
joke around, always trying to have good time. And the
season gets long, so you kind of need that comedic
relief in the room.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
And he's just a great guy to be around.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
And then you know, same thing with b why is
you know B Why and I played all together last
year and if you've seen those clips, he also played
with Puka.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
But he's, uh, he's.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Been around with us and he's been around with me,
and you know, he's really figured out what he's good at.
I mean, he ran a four to four, So I
mean that dude can roll and it's fun to see him,
uh as an outside linebacker and he can walk pretty
much anybody in the league down. And so I think
that's one of like the most elite traits that he has.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
You're referencing your underrated sense of humor. Let's say from
the miked up in New Orleans when you got Jared
and you got b Y with you on the bench,
and the line was, did you know that you know b.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Why played with well your rookie year. Yeah, even though
it wasn't.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
The history was when Verse was miked up for the
Minnesota game, b Y kind of looked at him and
he was just like, man, like, you know, I played
with Puca last year, and Verse just gives him this
look of yeah, like I know, and it sort of
just became a thing that we would, you know, bust
in each other about it. And then come the Saints game,
knowing I'm Mike, I was like, all right, you know, hey,
(11:02):
you know I played with Poogle last year and it
just kind of like snowballed into this thing. So I
imagine at some point when b wis micd up, it'll
happen again.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
You I mean, you stuck that landing. Yeah, you delivered it.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
And I love that you guys are in on the
jokes too, Like I know, you don't read all your
price clippings, you don't have time for that, you don't
care for that, but that you ingest our content and
that it matters to you and it kind of becomes
part of your narrative. That's that's what's make I think
the ram's great.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yeah, it's fun, and you know, I think with our room,
especially because we're young, you know, we want to have
as much fun doing it as possible. And it is
kind of cool that. You know, typically you would have
two outside linebackers on the field, but we're just like,
now we're gonna put all three of the linebackers on there,
and it's it is pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
I think your mohawk got some good run during that
miked up as well, but it's no longer.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, no, I'm I'm back to I'm back to bald.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
It was a nice little quarter week, you know, part
of the season, something fun, you know, break up the
maybe the monotony of that middle part.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
But now it's time to get pretty for the playoffs.
You talked about the edges.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
I know they're not in your position group room, but
they are you know your teammates up front. Can I
ask about Braden Fist first and then Kobe Turner. When
Fist was drafted, there was that narrative that he's a
force multiplier for Jared have you seen that in actuality, Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
We we pair them together all the time, and you know,
we'll call some of our stuff just seminole or whatever,
and it changes all the time, so I can say
that dory, but you know that kind of when they're yeah,
when they're you know, sort of working together. But it's cool.
They just kind of like feed off each other's energy.
And you know, our outside linebacker rooms so connected to
(12:36):
the defensive line room that it is kind of helpful
to have those two guys have that connection as an easy,
you know, alive branch to sort of bring us together.
But yeah, they have great chemistry, they're they're fun to
be around.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And then Kobe, I mean, I think we're all curious
to see, all right, we saw what it looks like
in the last year of the Aaron Donald era. What
about when he's the guy that has all the attention
and it looks pretty much the same, he's getting similar results.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, I mean, he's you know, so technically savvy with
his hands. You know, I was telling you a little
bit before you know, we started recording that just my
you know, one of my things that I love doing
after the games is just watching every single person on
every snap and just watching the like technical nature of
how he's putting his hands, where he's putting them, why
he's putting them in different spots. It is really really
(13:21):
cool to see, especially out of a young player. A
lot of respect for him.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
I remember how much you revered Aaron even in your
pre draft college free agency process. I remember you talking
very in great detail about what he meant to you
as an up and coming prospect. Even after he's gone
from this facility, do you still feel his lasting impact
in ways like that?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah, well, I mean two weeks ago he was in
there working out, so he definitely just has a lasting
impact around.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I want
to make sure that.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Not yeah, that's not a thing. But two weeks ago,
Aaron Don does come by every now and now and then.
But now he is he is retired, and you know,
I'm pretty sure it's staying that way. But I mean
his presence is all over the place, you know, for
for us that played with him, you know, he was
sort of like that culture leader of the team and
(14:08):
just you know, you would look at him and he
was just one of those guys that his presence in
the room is like, all right, like I'm going to
go lift a little bit more, I'm going to go
do a little bit more. I'm going to go try
a little bit harder. And you know, that was one
of the things outside of just you know, all the
production on the field. You know that the best ones
make everybody else around them better, and he just had
that aura about him.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
And kudos to you and a few others for carrying
that forward to for kind of taking that torch and
running with it. Tell me about the defensive turnaround here
in twenty twenty four. The first month of the season
was one thing, and then I think the rest of
the year has been something different. What are some of
the ingredients that's led to the improved performance?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
You know, I think it at the beginning.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
We were trying to figure out what everybody's good at,
and there was a little bit of we're a young
team there, a lot of us are new, a lot
of us are our rookie contracts, and you know, Shula
as a new DC. I think there was a bit
of an adjustment period between figuring out, all right, how
are we going to stop the run from uh, you know,
(15:10):
maybe the old days when we had Michael Brockers, Aaron Donald,
Greg Gang, Sebastian, Joseph Day, Morgan Fox like some of
that A'shawn Robinson, some of that group, and how we
would play defense there and now morphing it to this
younger maybe a little bit faster, maybe a little bit immature,
more immature, but more fun. Uh, And it's just you know,
(15:31):
it took a little adjustment for us to figure out
how we wanted to call and what we're good at.
And once we sort of figure that out, you know,
I think we just started leaning into it. We were
going to try and more of our defense, or we
weren't trying to morph our players to our defense. We're
just going to morph our defense to our players. And
you know, from there, now everybody's really comfortable in the
(15:52):
roles that they have, and it's exciting because every single
snap you're like, Oh, I'm doing something I'm really good at.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
This is a lot more fun to do it that way.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Mike, how much credit does Chris deserve for that? Because
to be a first time defensive coordinator in this league
is challenging enough, and then it's like, hey, would you
like this job?
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (16:08):
One caveat We're going to take the greatest defensive player
of all time away from you, and you got to
make it work with a bunch of those rookies, a
bunch of those undrafted players that you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Can you go do it? Yeah? I mean, he deserves
all the credit in the world.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It's so cool to see like how creative he's calling
plays and how many different looks and opportunities that he
can give people. And what I think he does a
really good job of is he really explains the why
behind things. So guys just aren't doing things for the
sake of doing them. They're doing them because they know
that every step that they take, every hand placement, every where,
(16:41):
your eyes looking this way versus this way, there's a
reason behind all of it. And there's a reason behind
why we're showing this, why we're doing this. This is
setting up for you know, this game two weeks from now.
We need to show this. We need to put this
on tape so that we can call something else. And
there is a grand scheme. There is a grand plan
that I think he's really really good at. And you know,
he's been successful at it because he's coached pretty much
(17:02):
every position on this defense at some point, and so
he knows how to speak outside linebacker. He knows how
to speak dB, he knows how to speak inside linebacker
and D line, and he knows how to connect with
those guys. And he knows how hard it is when
coaches ask you to do something that is really really hard,
but it is for the betterment of the team. And
(17:22):
he knows like, sometimes you got a tough down, but
we need you to do it, and you know, and
he knows how to convey that information really well, and
it's just been awesome playing for him.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
How much have those newcomers motivated you. I'm not sure
that's the right way to phrase that, but I have
in my mind's eye, like watching you in the off
season program and being like, okay, a couple of years
in a row now they've tried to draft the future
of the outside linebacker position, and that old dog Michael
Hoyt just won't give way, like he wants that job.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
So yeah, I mean, that's just kind of life in
the NFL. You can't take it too personally, you know,
how I feel about myself and my game is always
just going to be how much effort and how much
you know self satisfaction can I get do? I feel
good that I'm doing things the right way, playing hard,
you know, and playing really good football.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
I'm just like, you.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Know, more than anything, more than stats, more than anything
involved that people maybe evaluate, is just I want to
play really, really good, perfect football. And football is an
imperfect game. It's an impossible thing to do, but I
want to try and get as close to it as possible.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
How sound can it be?
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Is there a reason why I'm doing everything that I'm doing?
And you know, it's a maddening thing to try and
perfect what is so imperfect, But it's what's got me
this far.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
It's what's going to keep me going.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
And I love it, like I love the understanding the
process behind everything that's going on, and I know that
the results will take care of themselves.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Objectively, you've overachieved. Does it feel that way? Yes?
Speaker 3 (18:51):
But I mean I can't like look backwards. I've never
been able to do that. You know, It's always just
sort of been the next goal. And you know, for
US Saturday against the Cardinals, you know, win that game,
secure a playoff spot, and that's all that really matters
for that moment and for this week, starting today, you know,
I just got out of the sauna. I'm still kind
(19:11):
of sweating, and the whole time of the sauna you're sinking.
Be like, all right, Arizona Cardinals, Arizona Cardinals, Arizona Cardinals,
And once we take.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Care of that, we can handle the rest. Don't worry.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I'm going to get there. But I want to linger
on this for just a second, because you made it
to this point and if you're able to look forward
at least, I'm confident you're going to get another deal
in this league, like your tape says that you will.
Where are you in that process and what twenty five
might hold.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Honestly, I try not to give it too much thought.
You know, if you start worrying about what the future holds, like,
it's just it's gonna just cloud. You're thinking about the
Arizona Cardinals on Saturday, and so you know, when the
spring comes around, I'm sure my agent and you know,
everything will be able to be able to figure it out,
will work through it then. But I'm having too much
(19:57):
fun right now to worry about it. And you know,
I'm loving be in here. It's like, in my opinion,
it just has to be the best place in the
world to play football. I mean, look at the weather
where we played yesterday, and look at the weather today.
We're practicing in shorts tomorrow they're definitely not or they're
in the indoor. And we've just got like great culture
here and great coaching staff. And you know, I don't
(20:20):
I don't want to like miss out on anything that
I have here because I'm looking forward and looking ahead,
you know, so I really just want to be where
my feet are and.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Again take care of the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Well said, I mean, bravo, but it means so much,
you know, knowing you throughout this process because I remember
the first show and I encourage everyone to go back
and listen to that again. Like here's a guy who
held his own pro day virtually. You remember shooting, Yeah,
it was a weird time your iPhone and editing your
own forty yard dash.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yeah. So, I mean, I'll give you the abbreviated version.
But COVID happens.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Scouts all off the road agent calls, hey, you're have
an undrafted grade. Scouts aren't going to be your around.
Your pro DA is canceled. Not really sure what we
do here, this could be the end, might not, so
hang up the phone, and I'm kind of like, ah, man,
that kind of sucks because I wasn't really looking for
other jobs. I was sort of hoping this NFL thing
(21:13):
was at least going to get me through the summer.
And then uh So that was maybe a couple hours
and I was like, all.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Right, I'll just figure this out.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
So at the time, I had still had a couple
of roommates living with me at college and we were
finishing up classes virtually, and so we just went to
the park, set up, set up an iPhone on a tripod,
and we recorded every.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Drill we would do it pro day.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
At the pro day, we did, you know, all the
drills that you would probably do. We were going online
on YouTube and looking up some of the best pro
days and picking those drills and pick and choosing, and
we just put together a big package of you know,
tape and film and highlights and body comp and a
(21:57):
video of us in our living room and the only
weights that we have because all the weight rooms were closed,
were just half empty kegs and so we're just like
doing bicep curls with kegs and squats with backpacks. Full
of rocks, and it was just kind of like, I
don't know, the whole world's crazy right now. We're just
going to figure this out. And we sent it out
to as many people that would put eyeballs on it,
and it turned out, you know, the Rams, you know,
(22:18):
they saw it, they liked it. They took a chance
on me, and it's the best thing that ever happened
to me.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Two questions, do you still have those clips on your phone?
And can you air drop them to us before you leave?
Speaker 2 (22:27):
I definitely can. There's definitely some good ones in there.
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I want to call you like one of the most
improved Rams that I can recall, but it's almost tough
to pin that down because where have you improved? You
played just about every role on the defensive front and
continue to widen out and widen out. But here's the
other thing, too, is I don't want to lose out
of the fact that you're also like one of the
most improved in terms of popular with the fan base.
Like I think our audience has really grown to understand
(22:52):
and appreciate what has been asked of you and your
willingness and ability to do all that.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
So good on you. Yeah. I mean.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
I don't like, I don't do a ton of media,
so and I you know, don't have a lot of socials,
so I kind of very much like to stick to football.
And you know, but for the most part, I've really
just in the last couple of years really like just
come to love Los Angeles like I've loved every part
of it. And you know, for them, if that's you know,
coming across and just my play style and you know,
(23:21):
my energy at the stadium and how excited I am
to show up every day at work, you know, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
But yeah, I mean we've got so I.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Actually, I actually do have something on our fan base
because you know, I I do understand. I do hear
sometimes especially when opposing fan base has traveled so far,
well you know, you start to hear like, oh does
Los Angeles have you know, a fan base? Was like,
here's my point on this, all right. Los Angeles is
a giant city and there are a ton of distractions.
(23:51):
There is Hollywood TikTok, you know, there is you know,
the music industry, there's you know, a million different other orts, franchises,
and our fans on Sunday still choose to drive to
Sofi Stadium, through all the traffic, through all the parking,
through that bus lineup as you're leaving the stadium. All
those people care enough to still make the trip down
(24:12):
and come support us. That is dedication that a lot
of other cities don't have to deal with. Our people
still come, Our fans still come. You know, there's other
fan bases, you know, Green Bay for just an example,
not calling anybody out, but it's kind of green Bay
Packers and cheese, Like it's pretty easy to go to
Lambeau all the time and go support your team. Us
(24:33):
we have to deal with a lot more, and you know,
I I'm very thankful for all those people for spending
all that time and coming out there.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Thank goodness that Mic is nailed down to the table,
otherwise would be on the floor right now.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
One way that I see that, and I didn't even
think of this until this morning, is that foam finger
over my shoulder, yeap, Like one of the ways you've
ingratiated yourself loose.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
How about that?
Speaker 1 (24:55):
You and I were just talking about this in the
elevator in San Jose, in fact, before that forty niner game, Like, hey,
that LA sign after this act that Week eighteen win,
Like that's an indelible, franchise defining moment in a rivalry game.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I love that youth embraced that. Michael.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Yeah, and it's just fun, and especially against the Niners,
Like we've always just had this head to head with
the Niners, you know, going back my whole time that
I've been here. And I actually I was thinking about
the first time I did it. I was thinking about
it when we were in the hotel and we were
actually going I think I was coming up the elevator,
and I was like, that sounds pretty awesome if I
(25:30):
if I do it, so then you know, I was
just the whole game. I was just like, go get
a sack, Go get a sack, do it, and it happens,
and it happens fast, and I, you know, do it.
And I was just like after the game, I was
just like, as one of those cool moments that I'm
glad happened.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Yeah, what about those Arizona Cardinals. You've referenced a few
times how laser focus you are. On Saturday night, the
Cardinals gotcha and it was it was an embarrassing week too.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I get it for all of us.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
And then Kyler Murray a unique challenge and one that
you've seen several times in this league. Yeah, I mean,
dynamic quarterback, very very like, way faster than you think
he is. You watch him on film and he's fast,
and then you see it in person and he's even
faster than you think. But for us, you know, and
what I think we've all sort of taken this mentality
of is that it's not about the person, it's not
(26:16):
about the other team. It's about can we execute our
stuff the best we've ever done, And you know, can
we put together the most complete game of defense that
we can and just continue to you know, play good football,
play sound football, and you know, if we can keep
Kyler Murray in the pocket, shut down the run game.
But this is nothing new. That's every team you play
(26:36):
in the NFL and then went on third down. That's
just how you win football games as a defense. Remember
that time you were a calculus tutor in the IVY League.
I do, what's what's the more complex complex task like
breaking down the rams clinching scenarios for Week seventeen IVY
League Calculus chasing down Kyler Murray?
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Well, I would say chasing down Kyler Murray only because
chat ept could probably solve the the other ones for you.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
But I mean they all provide their own unique tasks.
You know.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
I've seen some of your tweets just about what teams
we need to root for, what teams we don't need
to root for, and the common wins versus that stuff
just above by big Grade.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
That's what I spent all of my flight home last
night doing. Let's get to the wind down, brought to
you by Sleep number. Each week here on RAMS Revealed,
we get insight into how sleep and recovery impacts performance
in the National Football League. I trust that you are
not spinning your wheels wasting time pursuing all those avenues.
What did you do on the five five and a
half hour flight home last night?
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Two things, mainly like one, whatever flight I'm going to do,
and I'm alluded to it earlier, but we have the
all twenty two on our iPads for the flight home,
and I pretty much watch every single player on every
single snap offense, defense, special teams. More just to like
appreciate football and what we do and you know, what
goes well, what doesn't, and just sort of try and
(27:59):
understand the game as best I can. But the other
fun part of that is there's a lot of stuff
that happens in a game, and a lot of stuff
non football related, funny things that happen on the sidelines.
You know, somebody, you know, a football hits a security guard,
which isn't funny, but it is funny to see on
tape top times. So all the little things like that,
you know, I always like to dig into. And you know,
(28:21):
when we're back in the plane, especially after a win,
everybody's up with their iPads. We're showing each other plays,
you know, we're sort of talking football, teaching each other stuff,
and it's it's just a really really good way to
spend you know, the forty five minutes while they load
up the plane and for us a six hour plane
ride coming back, and everybody's just talking shop.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
And then there is going around and I know, no free.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Ads either, but there's a college football retro bowl game
for that like this iPhone and I swear like twenty
people are playing it concurrently at the same time.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Seems to be the game of the season, and so
everybody's just kind of doing that. Right now. Are you
dialed into the college football playoff at all? Yeah, I've
watched a couple of them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Part of the reason I asked is because IVY League
champion is going to participate in the SCS play. You
saw that head it's about time And then I was
going to go back and say the first party the
answer you gave there, it sounds like the most fun
version of Pro football focus.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
What do you do on the plane?
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Yeah, they had Alaric Jackson among the highest graded RAMS
and the win over the Jets.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
How did you see it?
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Do you want to give like a RAMS player of
the game from your All twenty two study?
Speaker 3 (29:25):
I mean, it's it's a team sport and everything you
know requires everybody else around. And Aleric obviously played awesome.
He plays awesome most weeks. He's very very good. But
I mean the play of the game was the Higbee touchdown.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
It just has to be.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
I mean, if you watch the All twenty two, if
you watch him get in the end zone, don't watch
the people on the field, watch the sideline. Watch you know,
everybody sprint off off the sideline. Everybody's doing the big rig.
People are just going absolutely nuts. You know, as soon
as he scored that touchdown, everybody was like game over.
This is ours, and it was just it was it
was the moment of the game for us.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
As Sean said it, it was the happiest he had
ever seen a team for an individual to score.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
He's sent such an emotional leader for us, and he's
just you know, he's a guy that everybody wants to
play hard for, everybody wants to have success. He's just
an all time glue guy in the locker room. So
you know, anytime those guys have success, everybody's like, that's
our guy, that's our tight end.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Nice to bounce back from miss Pat and clinch that thing.
On special teams too. I know you have not forgotten
or abandoned your special teams roots. In fact, a couple
of blocked extra points this year yourself.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
So keep it up, all right.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Last thing you ever watch Tosh point zero I have?
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Okay, you remember like the web redemption segment?
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Oh god? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
All right, So here's a little RAMS revealed Web redemption
from Michael Hoyt.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Where I'm going with this is this? Am I doing
another No?
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I don't okay, good. I'm glad that it hasn't weighed
on your mind. But we asked you about Varsity Blues
the last time you're on the show and you it's
kind of a humble brag. You're like, I'm too young,
I haven't watched that movie. But there's a connection to
Brown University that we wanted you to dig into. Have
you Varsity Blues since we last spoke.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
I have seen it. You get the connection. I get
the connection. Now.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Okay, he's trying to make it out of West can
and he's got this scholarship offered to Brown.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yep, so he is.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Mox is a Brown Hall of Famer honorary member. Ultimer,
Merry Christmas, do you, buddy, do you have anything on
your wish list besides that Cardinals thing.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
That you referenced. You know, he knew exactly what I
was gonna say.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Cardinals went on Saturday, but no, pretty low key. And
my family and I you know, my parents have done
a really awesome job. But whenever the season ends, you know,
we'll go back to Toronto and we'll kind of do
our Christmas.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Then.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Oh nice, because Santa is able to go visit us,
you know, whenever he needs to. North Powle is quite
in Canada. It's a quick, quick flight. So usually when
we wrap up the season, you know, we'll go, you know,
and we'll do Christmas after with my brother and my
family and do it all then all right, well.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
We wish all of the Hoyts a very merry Christmas
in the middle of February. Awesome, good deal, Thanks Jab,
thanks for coming back to rams. Revealed from my Chaelhoyt.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I'm JB. Long.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Do not forget to join us if you can. Saturday
night Primetime Arizona Cardinals SOFI Stadium
But hello and welcome to a special holiday edition of
Rams revealed presented by Sleep Number, the rams official sleep
and wellness partner.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm your host, JB.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Long as you know, the Rams have won four games
in a row, and they'll close out the regular season
with back to back home games at SOFI Stadium against
division rivals, first up, the Arizona Cardinals. To talk about
all that in a preview Week seventeen is a repeat guest.
Now he's twenty seven years of age, he's a Super
Bowl champion, he's still Canadian.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
He's Michael Hoyt. What's up, buddy. Good to be here, JB.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
And yeah, it's been definitely a couple of years since
I've done it, and lots changed since then, but you know,
thankfully still here, still love and playing ball here for
the Rams.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, our setting has changed for sure. How do you
like the new digs?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, I mean, not only is it in Woodland Hills now,
but you guys seem to be well set up and
slowly unpacking.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
But no, it's great.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Episode seventy one was your first appearance back in October
of twenty one, your rookie season. Now we're in a
year for the Michael Hoyd Experience. Thanks for coming back
for episode one thirty two.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, I mean it feels like I've played that many
games and the means does it really? But well, I
mean it's been every year has just written its own story,
from you know, the first year, special team, super Bowl,
the Matthew Stafford trade, first year of all that, and
then slowly transitioning into more of like the outside linebacker
role last year, getting a lot of playtime under my belt,
and then you know, this year kind of putting together
(01:27):
this new Cheetah package, the Rhino package, putting different people
in different spots.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
But a lot's changed since then, but it's been fun.
Do you want to host this show? I feel like
you're better at it than I am. Take it away?
Where should we go next?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
No, it's I just will take care a Zona on Saturday.
And that's pretty much all focused on right now.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Just a couple of guys who bailed on their finance
careers to try and make life in the NFL where
it's gonna.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Be said right with you again? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Uh, why don't we start with bare chested in twenty
degree weather?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
What was that all about? Whose idea was.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
That honestly, I got off, I got off the plane,
I felt the temperature, and I like, this feels like
a shirt off game, and so walked out their pregame.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
So I always me and.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Jonah Williams always used to walk the field two times
before the game. And he was undrafted with me Peacequater
first year, made it year two, Super Bowl that year have.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Kind of been around.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
He's over in Detroit now, but that was kind of
our tradition before every single game is we would walk
two laps around the field, and so I kind of
used and I still do it even though he's now
with Detroit, but I use that to walk with the
shirt off, just to make sure that this was going
to be all right. So by the time I made
it around one walk, I was like, all right, we
got this. This is fine.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
How bad was it? It really wasn't that bad.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Once you get warmed up and you start moving a
little bit, and between us you have some vacline on
your arms to kind of keep the heat in a
little bit, but it's really not that cold once you
get going. It's when the sun went down start. I
think like when it switched from the third to the
fourth quarter. I think you can kind of tell. On
the sidelines, people were starting to get me like, all right,
we're missing the sun a little bit, let's turn the
(02:59):
heaters on the bench up.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
But not once you get moving, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
I was impressed, not because you were brave enough to
do it, but because you're brave enough to stay out there.
Once Byron Young joined you and took his shirt off too,
I feel like that's the point where I'm like going
back in the locker room, not wanting to be compared
to his physique.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
I mean, you know, we're all used to it because
he always has the crop tops going on. But you know,
it was kind of a cool moment where, you know,
I sort of started it, and then next thing, you know,
all the outside linebackers have our shirts off, and you know,
we're yelling and we're screaming, and it just sort of
gave us a little spark to start the game. Okay,
so they took it as a challenge.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I don't know if it's a challenge. I think they
just like participating.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I didn't know this, but some of the response on
social media cued me into I guess teams that do
this are players that do this, it often leads to
a loss, So on behalf of everyone who enjoys like
the cold weather foolishness. Thank you for inverting that trend
and making it okay for teams going forward to do this.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Yeah, I mean if I had known that, I probably
wouldn't have done it. I'm sure glad we could flip
the script. There other reflections like concrete football ones. On
the win that was your ninth of the season.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, I mean it was sloppy first half.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
You know, I think defensively is all I'm really going
to speak for here because that's primarily where I spend
all my time other than that one snap of tight
end in twenty two. But you know, we missed some
tackles on the third down. We were good on fourth down,
which is great, and then made a couple of adjustments
at halftime, came out and really just you know, I
think everybody there kind of had a bit of a
(04:28):
realization at halftime that we have a six hour flight
ahead of us, and if we don't win this game
that six hour flight it's going to feel like a
twenty hour flight. So, you know, from seeing what they
were having success on, we wanted to make sure we
tackle the checkdowns and then you know, keep applying pressure
and the more we can just feed Matthew the ball
like they're going to get in the end zone.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
How do you clean something like that up in game?
It seems so obvious. It's not like you went out
there being like, we don't need to tackle in the
first half. It's just Aaron Rodgers and the Jets will
be fine.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I think it's more just you know, being cognizant of
where the leaks are coming out of the backfield and
taking good pursued angles, knowing where your help is. You know, joking,
Ilia always tells us good defense is knowing where your
help is, whether that's where your leverage is, where your
gaps are, and you know when you're going to make
a tackle. There's good miss tackles and bad miss tackles.
A bad miss tackle is you miss it and he's
(05:15):
outside of your leverage. A good miss tackle is you
may not bring him down, but you miss to your
leverage and somebody's going.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
To be right there to bring him down.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You know those next gen route charts that you see
for like Puka Nakua, Cooper Cup, it looks like just
a random plate of spaghetti or something like that. I
would love to see one for you on your like
week to week defensive alignment. You talked a little bit
in passing about how your role has evolved on this defense,
Slow that Downforce. Describe what you are doing in twenty
(05:42):
twenty four for this RAMS defense.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
I mean, it's a little bit of what am I
not doing at this point? And I think we just
find good matchups and ways that we want to attack
their protections. It primarily comes up in third the third
down world where we're going to have what we call
our cheat of package. It's me Verse B why and
then Kobe and Fisk on the inside, and we just
get creative. We have our Thursday meetings where we all
(06:08):
just kind of talk about how we want to set protections,
what their ow line is not good at, what they
are good at, different ways that we can force them
to have to account for all five of us. But then,
you know, drop two of us out, drop one of
us out, drop you know, there was a couple of
times where Fisk was dropping out and all of us
are dropping out.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
We're just rushing three. So because we're all.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Very versatile and we're all young, and you know, throughout
the season, we were kind of figuring out what everybody's
good at, what people aren't good at, and we've sort
of come up with this package where everybody can do
everything and they have to account for everything, and it's
it's hard to sort of figure out, and it's going
to change week to week, and it's a really really
fun way to attack offenses.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I agree with you still young, but you're the old
guy in the group. Now. Yeah, it's weird. How fast
did that happen? Yeah, I mean it happened. You know.
It was twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Two, and Leonard Floyd was show me everything that I
needed to know, and Trell Lewis was here justin Hollins
and then I blinked and the room was pretty much
all rookies and or guys in the second year guys.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
You know, we had a new coach, and.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Then I was kind of the old guy in the room,
which you know, it was interesting for me to sort
of take on that role, and you know, I feel
like I had to grow up pretty quickly and start
to really understand what it means to not only be
in this defense but also be on the older side
of this defense. And then coming back this year. You know,
(07:34):
I'm pretty sure on the longest ten yured ram who's
been here consecutively. So I've been here five years straight,
and you know, I've wanted to take that to heart,
allow that to be like, if I can help the team,
just provide any sort of leadership or connection to that
twenty one super Bowl team, or just a guy that's
been around maybe not this building, but this organization and
(07:55):
be able to you know, how does the training room work,
how do the wait, how to weight room work?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
How does you know what's the best way.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
To do meals, the schedule, all the off the field
stuff that comes with being in Los Angeles as a
big market. You know, that's a lot of value that
I can provide that. You know, if I think a
year and a half ago, if you ask me like, oh,
are you going to be the guy that's going to
give all that of information, be like, no, I'm only
three years.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I've only been here three years.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
But then all of a sudden people started coming to
me for answers, and I had all the answers to
those types of questions, and I was like, Great, this
is a role I can thrive in.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
It sounds like you wear that mentor mantle comfortably here
and you describe that. Yeah, I mean, it's more just
a comfortability with this defense, and the terminology has been
been very similar, and it's just been I'm also a
football junkie, so I'm just gonna, you know, try and
understand everything more than just memorize it. And I'm gonna
be able to and I want to know the intricacies
(08:48):
of why we're calling what we're calling, and you know,
just how the defense is really built. I definitely nerd
out on that and you don't necessarily need that to
play really well, but it's more just fun for me.
We tap into that nerdiness. So that's what this is
all about. I think some have observed that you've got
coaching caliber chops. So can we use this moment in
time for like some hot breakdowns because with these new
(09:11):
pieces you're running mates. I just want to get your perspective,
Jared Verse, so far, what's your scatting report?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Yeah, I mean he's a beast if you just kind
of like I think I said this after the Minnesota game,
but you know, there's certain guys that just pop on tape,
and he's.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
One of them.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
You know, if the you know, you'll see better than
you hear. And if you just sort of watch him
play snap in and snap out, you're just gonna see
high motor, you know, long arms, you know, plays hard
and is just learning how to like control all that aggression.
And but he's a really really fun guy to be around.
He's you know, extremely loud, always trying to you know,
(09:47):
joke around, always trying to have good time. And the
season gets long, so you kind of need that comedic
relief in the room.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
And he's just a great guy to be around.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
And then you know, same thing with b why is
you know B Why and I played all together last
year and if you've seen those clips, he also played
with Puka.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
But he's, uh, he's.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Been around with us and he's been around with me,
and you know, he's really figured out what he's good at.
I mean, he ran a four to four, So I
mean that dude can roll and it's fun to see him,
uh as an outside linebacker and he can walk pretty
much anybody in the league down. And so I think
that's one of like the most elite traits that he has.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
You're referencing your underrated sense of humor. Let's say from
the miked up in New Orleans when you got Jared
and you got b Y with you on the bench,
and the line was, did you know that you know b.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Why played with well your rookie year. Yeah, even though
it wasn't.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
The history was when Verse was miked up for the
Minnesota game, b Y kind of looked at him and
he was just like, man, like, you know, I played
with Puca last year, and Verse just gives him this
look of yeah, like I know, and it sort of
just became a thing that we would, you know, bust
in each other about it. And then come the Saints game,
knowing I'm Mike, I was like, all right, you know, hey,
(11:02):
you know I played with Poogle last year and it
just kind of like snowballed into this thing. So I
imagine at some point when b wis micd up, it'll
happen again.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
You I mean, you stuck that landing. Yeah, you delivered it.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
And I love that you guys are in on the
jokes too, Like I know, you don't read all your
price clippings, you don't have time for that, you don't
care for that, but that you ingest our content and
that it matters to you and it kind of becomes
part of your narrative. That's that's what's make I think
the ram's great.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yeah, it's fun, and you know, I think with our room,
especially because we're young, you know, we want to have
as much fun doing it as possible. And it is
kind of cool that. You know, typically you would have
two outside linebackers on the field, but we're just like,
now we're gonna put all three of the linebackers on there,
and it's it is pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
I think your mohawk got some good run during that
miked up as well, but it's no longer.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, no, I'm I'm back to I'm back to bald.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
It was a nice little quarter week, you know, part
of the season, something fun, you know, break up the
maybe the monotony of that middle part.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
But now it's time to get pretty for the playoffs.
You talked about the edges.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
I know they're not in your position group room, but
they are you know your teammates up front. Can I
ask about Braden Fist first and then Kobe Turner. When
Fist was drafted, there was that narrative that he's a
force multiplier for Jared have you seen that in actuality, Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
We we pair them together all the time, and you know,
we'll call some of our stuff just seminole or whatever,
and it changes all the time, so I can say
that dory, but you know that kind of when they're yeah,
when they're you know, sort of working together. But it's cool.
They just kind of like feed off each other's energy.
And you know, our outside linebacker rooms so connected to
(12:36):
the defensive line room that it is kind of helpful
to have those two guys have that connection as an easy,
you know, alive branch to sort of bring us together.
But yeah, they have great chemistry, they're they're fun to
be around.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And then Kobe, I mean, I think we're all curious
to see, all right, we saw what it looks like
in the last year of the Aaron Donald era. What
about when he's the guy that has all the attention
and it looks pretty much the same, he's getting similar results.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, I mean, he's you know, so technically savvy with
his hands. You know, I was telling you a little
bit before you know, we started recording that just my
you know, one of my things that I love doing
after the games is just watching every single person on
every snap and just watching the like technical nature of
how he's putting his hands, where he's putting them, why
he's putting them in different spots. It is really really
(13:21):
cool to see, especially out of a young player. A
lot of respect for him.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
I remember how much you revered Aaron even in your
pre draft college free agency process. I remember you talking
very in great detail about what he meant to you
as an up and coming prospect. Even after he's gone
from this facility, do you still feel his lasting impact
in ways like that?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah, well, I mean two weeks ago he was in
there working out, so he definitely just has a lasting
impact around.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I want
to make sure that.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Not yeah, that's not a thing. But two weeks ago,
Aaron Don does come by every now and now and then.
But now he is he is retired, and you know,
I'm pretty sure it's staying that way. But I mean
his presence is all over the place, you know, for
for us that played with him, you know, he was
sort of like that culture leader of the team and
(14:08):
just you know, you would look at him and he
was just one of those guys that his presence in
the room is like, all right, like I'm going to
go lift a little bit more, I'm going to go
do a little bit more. I'm going to go try
a little bit harder. And you know, that was one
of the things outside of just you know, all the
production on the field. You know that the best ones
make everybody else around them better, and he just had
that aura about him.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
And kudos to you and a few others for carrying
that forward to for kind of taking that torch and
running with it. Tell me about the defensive turnaround here
in twenty twenty four. The first month of the season
was one thing, and then I think the rest of
the year has been something different. What are some of
the ingredients that's led to the improved performance?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
You know, I think it at the beginning.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
We were trying to figure out what everybody's good at,
and there was a little bit of we're a young
team there, a lot of us are new, a lot
of us are our rookie contracts, and you know, Shula
as a new DC. I think there was a bit
of an adjustment period between figuring out, all right, how
are we going to stop the run from uh, you know,
(15:10):
maybe the old days when we had Michael Brockers, Aaron Donald,
Greg Gang, Sebastian, Joseph Day, Morgan Fox like some of
that A'shawn Robinson, some of that group, and how we
would play defense there and now morphing it to this
younger maybe a little bit faster, maybe a little bit immature,
more immature, but more fun. Uh, And it's just you know,
(15:31):
it took a little adjustment for us to figure out
how we wanted to call and what we're good at.
And once we sort of figure that out, you know,
I think we just started leaning into it. We were
going to try and more of our defense, or we
weren't trying to morph our players to our defense. We're
just going to morph our defense to our players. And
you know, from there, now everybody's really comfortable in the
(15:52):
roles that they have, and it's exciting because every single
snap you're like, Oh, I'm doing something I'm really good at.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
This is a lot more fun to do it that way.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Mike, how much credit does Chris deserve for that? Because
to be a first time defensive coordinator in this league
is challenging enough, and then it's like, hey, would you
like this job?
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (16:08):
One caveat We're going to take the greatest defensive player
of all time away from you, and you got to
make it work with a bunch of those rookies, a
bunch of those undrafted players that you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Can you go do it? Yeah? I mean, he deserves
all the credit in the world.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It's so cool to see like how creative he's calling
plays and how many different looks and opportunities that he
can give people. And what I think he does a
really good job of is he really explains the why
behind things. So guys just aren't doing things for the
sake of doing them. They're doing them because they know
that every step that they take, every hand placement, every where,
(16:41):
your eyes looking this way versus this way, there's a
reason behind all of it. And there's a reason behind
why we're showing this, why we're doing this. This is
setting up for you know, this game two weeks from now.
We need to show this. We need to put this
on tape so that we can call something else. And
there is a grand scheme. There is a grand plan
that I think he's really really good at. And you know,
he's been successful at it because he's coached pretty much
(17:02):
every position on this defense at some point, and so
he knows how to speak outside linebacker. He knows how
to speak dB, he knows how to speak inside linebacker
and D line, and he knows how to connect with
those guys. And he knows how hard it is when
coaches ask you to do something that is really really hard,
but it is for the betterment of the team. And
(17:22):
he knows like, sometimes you got a tough down, but
we need you to do it, and you know, and
he knows how to convey that information really well, and
it's just been awesome playing for him.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Love it.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
How much have those newcomers motivated you. I'm not sure
that's the right way to phrase that, but I have
in my mind's eye, like watching you in the off
season program and being like, okay, a couple of years
in a row now they've tried to draft the future
of the outside linebacker position, and that old dog Michael
Hoyt just won't give way, like he wants that job.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
So yeah, I mean, that's just kind of life in
the NFL. You can't take it too personally, you know,
how I feel about myself and my game is always
just going to be how much effort and how much
you know self satisfaction can I get do? I feel
good that I'm doing things the right way, playing hard,
you know, and playing really good football.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
I'm just like, you.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Know, more than anything, more than stats, more than anything
involved that people maybe evaluate, is just I want to
play really, really good, perfect football. And football is an
imperfect game. It's an impossible thing to do, but I
want to try and get as close to it as possible.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
How sound can it be?
Speaker 3 (18:25):
Is there a reason why I'm doing everything that I'm doing?
And you know, it's a maddening thing to try and
perfect what is so imperfect, But it's what's got me
this far.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
It's what's going to keep me going.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
And I love it, like I love the understanding the
process behind everything that's going on, and I know that
the results will take care of themselves.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Objectively, you've overachieved. Does it feel that way? Yes?
Speaker 3 (18:51):
But I mean I can't like look backwards. I've never
been able to do that. You know, It's always just
sort of been the next goal. And you know, for
US Saturday against the Cardinals, you know, win that game,
secure a playoff spot, and that's all that really matters
for that moment and for this week, starting today, you know,
I just got out of the sauna. I'm still kind
(19:11):
of sweating, and the whole time of the sauna you're sinking.
Be like, all right, Arizona Cardinals, Arizona Cardinals, Arizona Cardinals,
And once we take.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Care of that, we can handle the rest. Don't worry.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
I'm going to get there. But I want to linger
on this for just a second, because you made it
to this point and if you're able to look forward
at least, I'm confident you're going to get another deal
in this league, like your tape says that you will.
Where are you in that process and what twenty five
might hold.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Honestly, I try not to give it too much thought.
You know, if you start worrying about what the future holds, like,
it's just it's gonna just cloud. You're thinking about the
Arizona Cardinals on Saturday, and so you know, when the
spring comes around, I'm sure my agent and you know,
everything will be able to be able to figure it out,
will work through it then. But I'm having too much
(19:57):
fun right now to worry about it. And you know,
I'm loving be in here. It's like, in my opinion,
it just has to be the best place in the
world to play football. I mean, look at the weather
where we played yesterday, and look at the weather today.
We're practicing in shorts tomorrow they're definitely not or they're
in the indoor. And we've just got like great culture
here and great coaching staff. And you know, I don't
(20:20):
I don't want to like miss out on anything that
I have here because I'm looking forward and looking ahead,
you know, so I really just want to be where
my feet are and.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Again take care of the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Well said, I mean, bravo, but it means so much,
you know, knowing you throughout this process because I remember
the first show and I encourage everyone to go back
and listen to that again. Like here's a guy who
held his own pro day virtually. You remember shooting, Yeah,
it was a weird time your iPhone and editing your
own forty yard dash.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yeah. So, I mean, I'll give you the abbreviated version.
But COVID happens.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Scouts all off the road agent calls, hey, you're have
an undrafted grade. Scouts aren't going to be your around.
Your pro DA is canceled. Not really sure what we
do here, this could be the end, might not, so
hang up the phone, and I'm kind of like, ah, man,
that kind of sucks because I wasn't really looking for
other jobs. I was sort of hoping this NFL thing
(21:13):
was at least going to get me through the summer.
And then uh So that was maybe a couple hours
and I was like, all.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Right, I'll just figure this out.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
So at the time, I had still had a couple
of roommates living with me at college and we were
finishing up classes virtually, and so we just went to
the park, set up, set up an iPhone on a tripod,
and we recorded every.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Drill we would do it pro day.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
At the pro day, we did, you know, all the
drills that you would probably do. We were going online
on YouTube and looking up some of the best pro
days and picking those drills and pick and choosing, and
we just put together a big package of you know,
tape and film and highlights and body comp and a
(21:57):
video of us in our living room and the only
weights that we have because all the weight rooms were closed,
were just half empty kegs and so we're just like
doing bicep curls with kegs and squats with backpacks. Full
of rocks, and it was just kind of like, I
don't know, the whole world's crazy right now. We're just
going to figure this out. And we sent it out
to as many people that would put eyeballs on it,
and it turned out, you know, the Rams, you know,
(22:18):
they saw it, they liked it. They took a chance
on me, and it's the best thing that ever happened
to me.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Two questions, do you still have those clips on your phone?
And can you air drop them to us before you leave?
Speaker 2 (22:27):
I definitely can. There's definitely some good ones in there.
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I want to call you like one of the most
improved Rams that I can recall, but it's almost tough
to pin that down because where have you improved? You
played just about every role on the defensive front and
continue to widen out and widen out. But here's the
other thing, too, is I don't want to lose out
of the fact that you're also like one of the
most improved in terms of popular with the fan base.
Like I think our audience has really grown to understand
(22:52):
and appreciate what has been asked of you and your
willingness and ability to do all that.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
So good on you. Yeah. I mean.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
I don't like, I don't do a ton of media,
so and I you know, don't have a lot of socials,
so I kind of very much like to stick to football.
And you know, but for the most part, I've really
just in the last couple of years really like just
come to love Los Angeles like I've loved every part
of it. And you know, for them, if that's you know,
coming across and just my play style and you know,
(23:21):
my energy at the stadium and how excited I am
to show up every day at work, you know, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
But yeah, I mean we've got so I.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Actually, I actually do have something on our fan base
because you know, I I do understand. I do hear
sometimes especially when opposing fan base has traveled so far,
well you know, you start to hear like, oh does
Los Angeles have you know, a fan base? Was like,
here's my point on this, all right. Los Angeles is
a giant city and there are a ton of distractions.
(23:51):
There is Hollywood TikTok, you know, there is you know,
the music industry, there's you know, a million different other orts, franchises,
and our fans on Sunday still choose to drive to
Sofi Stadium, through all the traffic, through all the parking,
through that bus lineup as you're leaving the stadium. All
those people care enough to still make the trip down
(24:12):
and come support us. That is dedication that a lot
of other cities don't have to deal with. Our people
still come, Our fans still come. You know, there's other
fan bases, you know, Green Bay for just an example,
not calling anybody out, but it's kind of green Bay
Packers and cheese, Like it's pretty easy to go to
Lambeau all the time and go support your team. Us
(24:33):
we have to deal with a lot more, and you know,
I I'm very thankful for all those people for spending
all that time and coming out there.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Thank goodness that Mic is nailed down to the table,
otherwise would be on the floor right now.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
One way that I see that, and I didn't even
think of this until this morning, is that foam finger
over my shoulder, yeap, Like one of the ways you've
ingratiated yourself loose.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
How about that?
Speaker 1 (24:55):
You and I were just talking about this in the
elevator in San Jose, in fact, before that forty niner game, Like, hey,
that LA sign after this act that Week eighteen win,
Like that's an indelible, franchise defining moment in a rivalry game.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I love that youth embraced that. Michael.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Yeah, and it's just fun, and especially against the Niners,
Like we've always just had this head to head with
the Niners, you know, going back my whole time that
I've been here. And I actually I was thinking about
the first time I did it. I was thinking about
it when we were in the hotel and we were
actually going I think I was coming up the elevator,
and I was like, that sounds pretty awesome if I
(25:30):
if I do it, so then you know, I was
just the whole game. I was just like, go get
a sack, Go get a sack, do it, and it happens,
and it happens fast, and I, you know, do it.
And I was just like after the game, I was
just like, as one of those cool moments that I'm
glad happened.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Yeah, what about those Arizona Cardinals. You've referenced a few
times how laser focus you are. On Saturday night, the
Cardinals gotcha and it was it was an embarrassing week too.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I get it for all of us.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
And then Kyler Murray a unique challenge and one that
you've seen several times in this league. Yeah, I mean,
dynamic quarterback, very very like, way faster than you think
he is. You watch him on film and he's fast,
and then you see it in person and he's even
faster than you think. But for us, you know, and
what I think we've all sort of taken this mentality
of is that it's not about the person, it's not
(26:16):
about the other team. It's about can we execute our
stuff the best we've ever done, And you know, can
we put together the most complete game of defense that
we can and just continue to you know, play good football,
play sound football, and you know, if we can keep
Kyler Murray in the pocket, shut down the run game.
But this is nothing new. That's every team you play
(26:36):
in the NFL and then went on third down. That's
just how you win football games as a defense. Remember
that time you were a calculus tutor in the IVY League.
I do, what's what's the more complex complex task like
breaking down the rams clinching scenarios for Week seventeen IVY
League Calculus chasing down Kyler Murray?
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Well, I would say chasing down Kyler Murray only because
chat ept could probably solve the the other ones for you.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
But I mean they all provide their own unique tasks.
You know.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
I've seen some of your tweets just about what teams
we need to root for, what teams we don't need
to root for, and the common wins versus that stuff
just above by big Grade.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
That's what I spent all of my flight home last
night doing. Let's get to the wind down, brought to
you by Sleep number. Each week here on RAMS Revealed,
we get insight into how sleep and recovery impacts performance
in the National Football League. I trust that you are
not spinning your wheels wasting time pursuing all those avenues.
What did you do on the five five and a
half hour flight home last night?
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Two things, mainly like one, whatever flight I'm going to do,
and I'm alluded to it earlier, but we have the
all twenty two on our iPads for the flight home,
and I pretty much watch every single player on every
single snap offense, defense, special teams. More just to like
appreciate football and what we do and you know, what
goes well, what doesn't, and just sort of try and
(27:59):
understand the game as best I can. But the other
fun part of that is there's a lot of stuff
that happens in a game, and a lot of stuff
non football related, funny things that happen on the sidelines.
You know, somebody, you know, a football hits a security guard,
which isn't funny, but it is funny to see on
tape top times. So all the little things like that,
you know, I always like to dig into. And you know,
(28:21):
when we're back in the plane, especially after a win,
everybody's up with their iPads. We're showing each other plays,
you know, we're sort of talking football, teaching each other stuff,
and it's it's just a really really good way to
spend you know, the forty five minutes while they load
up the plane and for us a six hour plane
ride coming back, and everybody's just talking shop.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
And then there is going around and I know, no free.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Ads either, but there's a college football retro bowl game
for that like this iPhone and I swear like twenty
people are playing it concurrently at the same time.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Seems to be the game of the season, and so
everybody's just kind of doing that. Right now. Are you
dialed into the college football playoff at all? Yeah, I've
watched a couple of them. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Part of the reason I asked is because IVY League
champion is going to participate in the SCS play. You
saw that head it's about time And then I was
going to go back and say the first party the
answer you gave there, it sounds like the most fun
version of Pro football focus.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
What do you do on the plane?
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Yeah, they had Alaric Jackson among the highest graded RAMS
and the win over the Jets.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
How did you see it?
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Do you want to give like a RAMS player of
the game from your All twenty two study?
Speaker 3 (29:25):
I mean, it's it's a team sport and everything you
know requires everybody else around. And Aleric obviously played awesome.
He plays awesome most weeks. He's very very good. But
I mean the play of the game was the Higbee touchdown.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
It just has to be.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
I mean, if you watch the All twenty two, if
you watch him get in the end zone, don't watch
the people on the field, watch the sideline. Watch you know,
everybody sprint off off the sideline. Everybody's doing the big rig.
People are just going absolutely nuts. You know, as soon
as he scored that touchdown, everybody was like game over.
This is ours, and it was just it was it
was the moment of the game for us.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
As Sean said it, it was the happiest he had
ever seen a team for an individual to score.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
He's sent such an emotional leader for us, and he's
just you know, he's a guy that everybody wants to
play hard for, everybody wants to have success. He's just
an all time glue guy in the locker room. So
you know, anytime those guys have success, everybody's like, that's
our guy, that's our tight end.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Nice to bounce back from miss Pat and clinch that thing.
On special teams too. I know you have not forgotten
or abandoned your special teams roots. In fact, a couple
of blocked extra points this year yourself.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
So keep it up, all right.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Last thing you ever watch Tosh point zero I have?
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Okay, you remember like the web redemption segment?
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Oh god? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (30:39):
All right, So here's a little RAMS revealed Web redemption
from Michael Hoyt.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Where I'm going with this is this? Am I doing
another No?
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I don't okay, good. I'm glad that it hasn't weighed
on your mind. But we asked you about Varsity Blues
the last time you're on the show and you it's
kind of a humble brag. You're like, I'm too young,
I haven't watched that movie. But there's a connection to
Brown University that we wanted you to dig into. Have
you Varsity Blues since we last spoke.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
I have seen it. You get the connection. I get
the connection. Now.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Okay, he's trying to make it out of West can
and he's got this scholarship offered to Brown.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yep, so he is.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Mox is a Brown Hall of Famer honorary member. Ultimer,
Merry Christmas, do you, buddy, do you have anything on
your wish list besides that Cardinals thing.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
That you referenced. You know, he knew exactly what I
was gonna say.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Cardinals went on Saturday, but no, pretty low key. And
my family and I you know, my parents have done
a really awesome job. But whenever the season ends, you know,
we'll go back to Toronto and we'll kind of do
our Christmas.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Then.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Oh nice, because Santa is able to go visit us,
you know, whenever he needs to. North Powle is quite
in Canada. It's a quick, quick flight. So usually when
we wrap up the season, you know, we'll go, you know,
and we'll do Christmas after with my brother and my
family and do it all then all right, well.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
We wish all of the Hoyts a very merry Christmas
in the middle of February. Awesome, good deal, Thanks Jab,
thanks for coming back to rams. Revealed from my Chaelhoyt.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I'm JB. Long.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
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