Using a first round pick for first time since 2016 could lands Rams a Defensive Rookie of the Year
Jared Verse has been the Defensive Rookie of the Year in the first half of the season and the Rams didn’t even need a top-15 pick to get him.
Rams rookie Jared Verse has been a terror going through & around guys. He’s currently:
7th in pressures
3rd/126 edges in pass rush productivity
T-11th/118 edges in run stops
T-42nd/118 edges in run stop %Here’s 2:16 of him being insubordinate & churlishpic.twitter.com/8YMIxN9W7k
— Anthony Cover 1 (@Pro__Ant) November 8, 2024
Though it isn’t the strongest defensive class in history — and by offensive players being the first 14 picks, it was the “weakest” group of first round D prospects in history — Verse is standing out not just among peers, but among veterans.
The 19th overall pick in the draft, Verse is playing like the edge rusher who was projected to be a top-10 (or even top-5) pick prior to his final season at Florida State.
After the 2023 draft concluded, Verse was a top-10 pick in “way too early” 2024 mock drafts. Though his stock didn’t fall dramatically, there wasn’t the buzz of Verse being a potential game-changer like he was being touted as after a dominant sophomore season at Florida State, after he had transferred from Albany.
His production didn’t drop off, but the hype was mostly forgotten.
It’s not anymore.
Your 2024 Midseason Defensive Rookie of the Year is @RamsNFL OLB Jared Verse! pic.twitter.com/0245oMuQE5
— NFL on FOX Podcast (@NFLonFOXPod) November 7, 2024
With 2.5 sacks in the last two games, Verse has turned pressures into production and that’s finally getting him noticed after he had already been pretty dominant from the jump.
The only player close to Aidan Hutchinson on this “Disruption” chart for pressures that happen before and after a play develops, is Verse:
Pressure can come in multiple forms– pressure that disrupts a play from ever developing (X axis) and pressure which arrives later in the play after a QB was able to go through his reads (Y axis). pic.twitter.com/YNYyyJtPKp
— Jrfortgang (@throwthedamball) November 6, 2024
On the season, Verse has 33 tackles, 9 TFL, 3.5 sacks, 13 QB hits, and 22 pressures, depending on where you get your pressure stats from. (They vary everywhere!)
He’s also playing 75% of the snaps as a rookie, which gets overlooked because it’s just assumed that “Of course he plays that much, the Rams don’t have anybody else!” But just because he was forced into a starting role, we’ve seen many other players fall apart in those situations and the team has to go find reinforcements.
Not the Rams.
Verse has surpassed Byron Young, already a good find for Les Snead in 2023, and his ceiling is as high as he wants it to be. There was a time not long ago when Verse was thought to have the abilities of a top-5 edge rusher. That was about two years ago.
And it is also right now.
