INDIANAPOLIS — Results from preseason football can lead to hyperbole or flat-out bad takes, a time-honored tradition at this time of summer.

But it’s worth wondering if a player the Los Angeles Rams drafted to complement 2016 Chicago Bears first-round pick Leonard Floyd actually might be able to help out Yannick Ngakoue as coach Matt Eberflus looks for much more from his pass rush this season.

Terrell Lewis was credited with a strip-sack in the second quarter of Saturday night’s 24-17 loss to the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium when he exploded past rookie left tackle Blake Freeland, ambushing quarterback Sam Ehlinger from behind and easily dislodging the ball.

“Just getting off the ball there,” Lewis said. “The play before that, I powered him and usually when you threaten them with that, the next play you can beat a guy with speed. It worked.”

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Combine that with the two sacks and forced fumble he had in the preseason opener last week and Lewis has added game production for the front office and coaching staff to consider on top of the flashes he has had in practice going back to the OTAs in May when, on occasion, he was flying by first-round draft pick Darnell Wright.

To be clear, Freeland is a fourth-round rookie from BYU whom the Colts list as a right tackle. He’s not going to start at left tackle this season unless something goes awry in Indianapolis. The reserve linemen the Bears faced against the Tennessee Titans were lousy.

But the 6-foot-5, 262-pound Lewis has produced with his opportunities and is intriguing from the standpoint that if you had to pick one defensive end on the roster most like Ngakoue in terms of traits and ability to bend the edge it might be Lewis, the former Alabama star drafted in the third round by the Rams in 2020.

Lewis sacked Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson twice in his fifth NFL game in 2020, but after that he never really took off in Los Angeles. COVID-19 made that rookie season bizarre, to say the least. The Rams changed defensive coordinators after the season. Lewis was playing as an outside linebacker and for whatever reasons — and there have to be multiple — it never clicked.

After Lewis was a healthy inactive for two straight weeks, the Rams waived him on Dec. 15 as one of the defenses struggling to rush the passer — the Rams tied for 21st in sacks last season — gave up on a pass rusher. Lewis appeared in 30 games over three seasons with seven starts, accounting for 40 tackles, 10 quarterback hits, six sacks and one interception. He played 48% of the defensive snaps in 2021 and 2022.

“It was very much a surprise,” Lewis said. “Very random. It was interesting.”

Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris told Los Angeles media after the move: “In order to give Terrell the best chance to get back on the grass, we decided to part ways and let him move on and have an opportunity somewhere else where it was probably going to be more fruitful for him. In order not to have a disgruntled worker, (coach) Sean (McVay) really means what he says, people first. We decided to let (Lewis) go, give him an opportunity to go play somewhere else and move on.”

Lewis cleared waivers, not because he’s viewed as a malcontent but possibly because when he was drafted there were injury concerns after his career at Alabama. He played only 14 games for the Crimson Tide as he dealt with a variety of issues, including a torn ACL. He has been mostly healthy in the NFL although he missed time with a knee issue as a rookie in 2020.

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“People worried about my health, which was still a little confusing to me just because of the fact I have been healthy for the last two, three years,” he said.

The Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers expressed interest, but Lewis chose to sign with the Bears practice squad on Dec. 20.

“We both need each other at the right time,” Lewis said. “My agent (Nicole Lynn) said, ‘They need a pass rusher.’ I needed a place where I felt like I could grow as a pass rusher, where they would let me to continue to fire off the ball, continue to work my craft as a pass rusher. That part was a match made in heaven. Then also being at a place like this where it kind of reminds me of Alabama, the facilities, everything like that. There are resources to take advantage of to take care of your body. It’s helping me bring out my best abilities.”

Maybe Lewis is a bubble guy looking ahead to Aug. 29, when teams must form an initial 53-man roster. The Bears can use players who can get home after Ngakoue and DeMarcus Walker.

“I don’t even look at it from that perspective,” Lewis said. “I go in with the mindset that I should be on the team.”

The way he has played in preseason, perhaps he will be.