Rams’ Terrell Lewis is tired of being overlooked because of his knee

Since the moment Terrell Lewis was drafted by the Rams in the third round in 2020, he’s been labeled as a high-risk player due to his injury history in college. Those injury concerns are a big reason he was even available to the Rams at No. 84 overall because there were no questions about his potential as a supremely athletic 6-foot-5 edge rusher.

Unfortunately, Lewis hasn’t been able to shed that injury-prone label in his first two seasons. He’s played just 19 games, missing time due to a knee injury and also as a healthy scratch in 2021.

All that has added up to a massive chip on Lewis’ shoulder, one he’s using as motivation to hopefully propel himself to a breakout season in 2022.

“I feel like a lot of times, people have overlooked me off the stress of my health and things like that,” Lewis said Wednesday. “I feel like me and the people that watch me closely, if you watch me every time that I step on the field, you can tell that I have an impact when I’m on the field or you feel my presence in some way. I have a huge chip on my shoulder, but it’s not really to prove myself to anybody else other than me just to prove myself right. Like, ‘You say all this about yourself. If this how you feel, show it. Show it every day.’”

Lewis was unable to take advantage of his opportunity last year next to Leonard Floyd when the Rams were searching for a starter before Von Miller arrived in November. But there have certainly been flashes of his potential. He had a sack in three straight games in October, which propelled him into a starting role from Week 7-9. But after that, his snaps decreased and he was ruled out in Week 13 due to a knee injury.

It was a frustrating time for Lewis, whose knee appeared to be improving last season before the setback – and eventually, Miller’s arrival. Mentally, Lewis tried to remain positive and focus on football rather than what people are saying about his health and his knee.

“Hell yeah. I told him just now, like, ‘Man, I’m not trying to sit up here and just talk about my knee all day.’ Honestly, I feel like the mental things, just dealing with it on a daily and then even last year, I felt like I definitely overcame the whole knee obstacles and everything that people talk about,” Lewis said. “Then it’s like, I know I went through a stretch of just not being out there, just still being healthy, but not being out there to the point where it’s like, people would just assume,…