How to get a velocity to use as a lerp time

Hello,

I am making a script that makes my camera tilt on the sides when i strafe, on top of that i would like to have my tilt to reset at the original pose when i hit a wall. So my guess was that i need to get my Player's velocity to use it as a lerp time float, not noticing how stupid it was it acually kind of worked but i guess just getting the velocity and detecting only when the player dont move is a better choice but it leaves me with the same problem: How can i use a vector3 as a float value ? i did notice that my playerVelocity Vector worked as a float if would specify the axis when i play with this Lerp i can tilt only facing some directions, some dont work and some makes my camera tilt jerky. Any ideas ? ===========================================================================

  void LateUpdate()
     {
         Vector3 playerVelocity = GameObject.Find("Player").GetComponent<Rigidbody>().velocity;
         float zvel = playerVelocity.x * playerVelocity.z;
         /*    float t = currentLerpTime / lerpTime;
             t = Mathf.Sin(t * Mathf.PI * 0.5f);
             //increment timer once per frame
             currentLerpTime += Time.deltaTime;
             if (currentLerpTime > lerpTime)
             {
                 currentLerpTime = lerpTime;
             }
             float perc = currentLerpTime / lerpTime;
             */
 
         if (Input.GetAxisRaw("Horizontal") < 0)
         {
             leftTilt();
         }
 
 
         if (Input.GetAxisRaw("Horizontal") > 0)
         {
             transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(transform.rotation, Quaternion.Euler(transform.rotation.eulerAngles.x, transform.rotation.eulerAngles.y,
 -2.5f), Time.deltaTime * lerpTime * zvel);
         }
         else if (Input.GetAxisRaw("Horizontal") == 0)
         {
             transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(transform.rotation, Quaternion.Euler(transform.rotation.eulerAngles.x, transform.rotation.eulerAngles.y, 0), Time.deltaTime * lerpTime * zvel);
         }
 
     }
 
     void leftTilt()
     {
         Vector3 playerVelocity = GameObject.Find("Player").GetComponent<Rigidbody>().velocity;
         float zvel =   playerVelocity.z;
         float xvel = playerVelocity.x;
 
         float global = xvel * zvel;
         transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(transform.rotation, Quaternion.Euler(transform.rotation.eulerAngles.x, transform.rotation.eulerAngles.y,
 2.5f), Time.deltaTime * lerpTime * global);
 
         if (zvel <= 0)
         {
             transform.rotation = Quaternion.Lerp(transform.rotation, Quaternion.Euler(transform.rotation.eulerAngles.x, transform.rotation.eulerAngles.y, 0), Time.deltaTime * lerpTime);
         }
 
     }