WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. — Jared Verse was straining, pressing and sometimes frustrated.
The Los Angeles Rams’ reigning defensive rookie of the year had heard all about the jump pro players take between Years 1 and 2, when the pass-rush plan comes together right as the body enjoys a surge from a full offseason in an NFL strength program.
He knew how much the Rams were counting on him to be the engine of a defense that had the lowest financial investments of any team in the NFL. However, what he saw on most snaps was the attention a top pass rusher gets, with double-teams, chips and quick throwaways.
Through two games, Verse had yet to sack the quarterback. And that’s when he got called into Sean McVay’s office.
McVay had something to show him on a screen. It was Verse’s best rushes from his rookie season, like the two sacks and 57-yard fumble return touchdown during the playoffs.
“You get a lot of our guys, whether it’s Jared, these special players, they’re always wanting to push the envelope and add new things to their repertoire,” McVay said of the meeting. “At the same time, what you don’t want to do is lose sight of what’s made you a special player in the first place. What kind of player are you? What are you capable of being? What are the key things?”
This is McVay’s method of pushing the buttons of his best players. It’s positivity all the time, which can sometimes feel like a shot in the arm for a pass rusher, as wired on throwing offensive linemen and spewing trash talk as Verse can be.
This season has been a test of how Verse fits into the pantheon of premier edge rushers in the NFL. He already had the draft stock as the 19th overall pick in 2024, the Rams’ first selection in the first round since 2016. He already had the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and a postseason run.
However, the step from good to great is often the hardest in a league where coordinators stay up all night scheming ways to play away from their opponent’s best players, and Verse felt that, in a real way, in the first couple of weeks.
His production has ticked up some since that Week 3 film session. That week, he had a strip-sack that set up an easy touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles. He had four sacks in five weeks as the defense rounded into form. It was the first sign of him answering the goal he set for himself early in the season.
“The greats get that attention, the greats break through it,” Verse said. “You can only chip somebody so many times before you have to realize, ‘All right, we can’t do this anymore. He’s going to get out of this.’ What else can you do after that? I just have to pass this next phase, this next wall, this next mountain. That’s the only thing I’m focused on.”
The production has ebbed and flowed. After those four sacks from Weeks 3-7, he’s only gotten to the quarterback in one game since. Granted, it was a monstrous performance in a 34-7 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, when he beat three-time All-Pro Tristan Wirfs twice for sacks.
Jared Verse’s last two sacks came in a dominant win over the Buccaneers in Week 12, but his impact has been felt throughout the season. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images)
This is the second straight season Verse’s hurry numbers tell a story that his sack totals do not. He’s up to six sacks, which tops last year’s 4.5 that earned him rookie honors, but the total sits outside the top 20 in the NFL. However, his 30 hurries lead all outside linebackers and trail just six total pass rushers in the NFL, according to Sports Info Solutions.
The six names above him in hurries are Aidan Hutchinson, Micah Parsons, Will Anderson Jr., Josh Hines-Allen, Chris Jones and Jeffery Simmons.
“I’m watching a lot of Myles (Garrett), a lot of Micah (Parsons), a lot of (Maxx) Crosby, a lot of Aidan Hutchinson,” Verse said. “I’m watching a lot of these guys to see how they beat the chips when they do get them versus when I’m just getting a free one-on-one where I know what I’m going to work.”
Verse has a game that isn’t going to be entirely quantifiable by sack totals because his greatest strength is against the run. That’s the most significant advantage of his trademark bull rush, and it lives in the numbers the Rams are creating in the run defense, where they have allowed just four rushing scores all season.
One of the challenges for a three-down player who plays 77 percent of snaps is finding the juice to win with max speed on downs when the quarterback drops back.
For now, Verse’s pass-rush game is affecting the quarterback more than finishing the play. His 63 pressures and 16 knockdowns lead all linebackers.
He is a collapsing edge rusher, fighting through chips and double-teams and changing the math on how blocking schemes go about handling the men around him. His success can live in the 11 sacks Byron Young has recorded as a finishing speed body when the quarterback bails, or in the 4.5 sacks Kobie Turner has as his partner on stunts and twists.
Verse’s goal is to make the sacks he does get count, and the only player in the NFL who has forced more turnovers on pressures than his eight the past two seasons is his teammate, Young, who has nine, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats.
“We’ve been talking to him about being in a great stance, being one of 11, not trying to do too much and not trying to be Superman every single play,” defensive coordinator Chris Shula said. “He’s done just that. He’s affecting the game. He’s affecting the quarterback.
“He affects the game every single play. He’s not just one of those guys, like a one-trick pony that comes in and rushes. He’s a guy that offenses have to account for him every play.”
However, the bar rises based on circumstances and the way team goals expand late in a season. The Rams are 10-3 but are locked into a razor-tight NFC West race with the 10-3 Seattle Seahawks and the 9-4 San Francisco 49ers. They have an offense running and passing at will right now, but someone on the league’s lowest-paid defense has to make the plays to seal games, and it won’t come the rest of the regular season from star safety Quentin Lake, who is on injured reserve.
Those plays will be critical over the next two games against the Detroit Lions and Seahawks. On Sunday, when he flips with Young to the right side of the line, he’ll rush against two-time first-team All-Pro right tackle Penei Sewell.
The standard for edge rushers can feel warped in a league where Garrett has 20 sacks in 13 games, despite every offense he faces throwing everything at him to slow him down. It’s only fair to let Garrett, the 2017 No. 1 overall pick who has topped 12 sacks in every healthy season, to live in his own stratosphere. But the players whom Verse studies, such as Hutchinson and Crosby, have found ways to post double-digit sack seasons with that attention, too.
For the Rams to play with two athletic but undersized ballhawking cornerbacks, Emmanuel Forbes Jr. and Cobie Durant, and to play at the rate of dime defense that Shula prefers, the defensive line needs to be not just strong but dominant.
It’s become a challenge for the entire line as teams have responded to Young’s breakout season and Verse’s turnover-forcing plays by throwing quick to negate their impact, disrupting their flow and adrenaline.
That isn’t often a problem for Verse, who lives on trash talk with a voice so booming it’s the first heard whenever he enters the locker room. But in a game of humans, he can feel the pressure at times, which is why his head coach has a highlight reel ready to show him who he can be when on top of his game.
“I think seeing is more important and more powerful than anything you can say,” McVay said. “When you can show successful examples of, ‘This is what it looks like when you’re doing the things that you’re capable of, you don’t have to make stuff up. You’re being yourself snap in and snap out, that relentless mindset and mentality.’ …
“I think it’s our job to be able to try to help these guys find their highest potential and continue to lean in and believe in them.”
