• Jared Verse is in rare company: The second-year edge rusher has totaled the third-most pressures by any second-year player through six weeks in PFF history.

• More than just a one-man show: Over the past three weeks, the Rams’ team PFF pass-rushing grade when sending four rushers is the best in football.

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The Los Angeles Rams have started off 4-2, with their only two defeats coming in one-score games against fellow playoff contenders with winning records.

A large part of their early success has been thanks to the blistering start from their young edge-rushing duo of Jared Verse and Byron Young.

Verse was a known commodity entering the season — he’s fresh off one of the brightest rookie seasons we’ve seen from an edge defender in recent years. Byron Young, on the other hand, is a former third-round pick who posted slightly above-average PFF grades in each of his first two NFL seasons prior to bursting out of the gates in 2025.

The duo of Verse and Young have combined for 59 total pressures through six games, ranking third and ninth in the NFL, respectively. The pair is the largest reason why the Rams rank third in the NFL in knockdown percentage (sacks and hits combined) after years of relying solely on interior pressure from Aaron Donald.

Los Angeles Rams Knockdown (sacks & hits) Rate Year

While Verse has posted lofty pressure numbers in part thanks to his sheer volume of reps (fifth-most total pass-rushing snaps in the NFL), Young possesses some additional coverage versatility. Dropping into coverage on 23% of passing snaps, Young is left with a smaller sample of snaps to leave his mark on the quarterback, yet he’s still finding ways to be as successful in this limited role.

Despite ranking ninth in total pressures, Young is currently second on the NFL’s sack leaderboard with 7.5 sacks through Week 6. He has already matched his total sack count from last season on less than half as many pass-rushing snaps. Young is currently bringing the quarterback down at a rate of one sack on every 20 dropbacks.

All 26 of Young’s pressures, and all 7.5 sacks, have come when he is lined up across from the right tackle. The 15% of his pass-rushing snaps coming from the other side of the defensive line have yielded no returns as of yet.

That leaves Verse to take on opposing left tackles. Between Weeks 2 and 5, Verse lined up against a combined $330 million worth of blindside blockers in the shape of Trent Williams, Jordan Mailata, Bernhard Raimann and Dan Moore Jr. Verse registered quarterback hits against all but Mailata, who still surrendered multiple pressures on just 13 pass-rushing matchups between the two.

Verse’s 31 pressures through six weeks are the third-most of any second-year player in the PFF era. Only Von Miller and Aidan Hutchinson can say they got their sophomore campaigns off to a hotter start. Rams general manager Les Snead took a chance on Verse as an older prospect (already 24 years old) in hopes that he would pay immediate dividends. Since he was drafted in 2024, Verse leads the entire NFL in pressures.

The only blemish on Verse’s resumé has been his sack conversion rate. On Verse’s 119 career pressures, he has registered just 9.5 sacks, which ranks 41st in the NFL over that timeframe.

While Verse’s sack totals haven’t quite matched his pressure numbers, the tape shows it’s not due to ineffective rushes. Many players with low conversion rates are pocket pushers who only compress the pocket without finishing the play, but Verse isn’t one of them. He consistently beats tackles cleanly and makes contact with quarterbacks, evidenced by his 28 quarterback hits over the past two seasons — the third-most in the NFL. Verse also leads the league in pressures on true passing sets (25), further verifying that there is nothing fraudulent about his game.

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The Rams boast a fairly conventional pass-rushing unit. They blitz the quarterback at an above-league-average, but wholly, unremarkable rate. The same can be said about their use of pass-rushing stunts. They rank eighth in the league in usage for both.

However, there is no doubt that the Rams are at their best when they rush four. Over the past three weeks, their team PFF pass-rushing grade when sending four rushers sits at 86.5 (first). When deploying five or more pass rushers, their grade falls to 66.7 (13th in the NFL), and their team pressure rate only increases by 1% — not worth it at the expense of an additional coverage defender.

The resurgence of this four-man pass rush extends beyond the edges. Interior lineman Kobie Turner is tied for fifth among interior defensive linemen in pressures on true passing sets, while veteran Poona Ford is also posting a strong season in a rotational role in his first season for the Rams. His 85.3 PFF grade ranks fifth among 130 defensive linemen.

With Verse’s relentlessness and Young’s versatility, Los Angeles may finally have found its post-Donald identity on defense. That seems to be one built primarily around an explosive presence on the edge and a knack for leaving opposing quarterbacks on the mat.