Can Jared Verse enter the Defensive Player of the Year Conversation?
Coming into the season, the Los Angeles Rams defense was not expected to be very good following the departure of Aaron Donald. There was no denying how much Donald elevated the play of those around him and to not have his presence was certainly going to be detrimental. With that said, since the bye week and even going further back to Week 3, the Rams defense has performed like a top-10 unit.
A lot of that has been because of the performance of rookie edge rusher Jared Verse. It would be unfair and unrealistic to say that Verse has replaced Donald. However, he has replaced Donald in the sense that he is the clear star on the defense and gives opposing offenses somebody that they have to game plan around.
At the halfway point of the season, Verse is the clear favorite at -200 odds. Adam Beasley of the Pro Football Network who awarded Verse his midseason Defensive Rookie of the Year said,
“Verse has been even better in his first nine games than could have been reasonably. He had a strip sack, two total tackles for loss, and a fumble recovery in a game in which the Rams’ offense let down its defense…He’s first in his rookie class in sacks (4.5), pressures (44), quarterback hits (15), hurries (28), and pressure rate (20.2%)…Verse and Fiske are really the only reason the Rams defense has been as competitive as it has been in 2024…Verse is by far the best defensive rookie not just on his own team, but the entire league. He has at least one tackle for loss in seven of his first nine games and 3.5 sacks in his last three. His 11 tackles for loss are tied for second most by any player through their first 11 games since TFLs became an official stat in 1999. The defenders he’s tied with? Von Miller and Micah Parsons.”
Verse and Rams would certainly be pleased with a Defensive Rookie of the Year performance. However, with how well he is playing and how he is impacting the Rams defense as a whole, it is worth wondering what Verse would need to do to become just the second rookie in NFL history to win Defensive Player of the Year as well.
The only other player to do that also was an edge rusher. That player was Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants. Taylor finished with 9.5 sacks in 1981 and had one fumble recovery. Like Verse, his impact on the Giants defense was immediately felt. Marcus Mosher of The 33rd Team looked back on Taylor’s rookie season. Said Mosher,
“Taylor recorded 9.5 sacks and one interception as a rookie, but the stats don’t tell the story. Before Taylor arrived, the New York Giants had gone 18 seasons without making the postseason. However, in Taylor’s first year, the Giants had the No. 3 ranked scoring defense and not only made the playoffs but also defeated the Eagles in Round 1, advancing to the Divisional Round for the first time since 1963. Taylor changed the game and changed how teams account for star pass rushers.”
A similar case could be made for Verse and his impact on the Rams. As it stands, TJ Watt is the favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year with -200 odds. Verse isn’t even in the top-10. With that said, after Aidan Hutchinson got hurt, there hasn’t been a defensive player that has necessarily been standing out. Watt may be the favorite, but only has 6.5 sacks. Players like Myles Garrett and Nick Bosa only have 5.5 and seven sacks respectively. Trey Hendrickson currently leads that category with 11.
As it stands, Verse currently has 4.5 sacks, but that could be 6.5 or 7.5 had he not missed a handful earlier in the season. He’s currently sixth in the NFL in pressures and which leads Watt. He also has a higher pressure rate than Watt and Bosa as well. Since Week 7, Verse has been the 10th highest graded defender via Pro Football Focus and is second in the NFL in pressures behind only Hendrickson.
The special thing here is that Verse is only a rookie. He is this good during his rookie season and similar to Donald, it’s almost going to get to a point where it becomes boring talking about how good he is. Teams are doubling Verse at a rate of 25 percent. That’s the second-highest rate among edge rushers behind only Myles Garrett.
Like Taylor during his rookie season, stats don’t tell the whole story. Coming into the season, the Rams defense was consistently getting ranked inside the bottom-10 around the 25th or 26th spot. However, that was before they traded Ernest Jones to the Tennessee Titans. On the defensive side of the ball, the Rams have $30-million less than the next lowest team. This is a group that was very clearly re-building.
However, since Week 4, the Rams rank 5th in overall defense EPA and they rank second in quarterback pressure rate and a lot of that has to do with Verse. Again, this is a group that many expected to be in the bottom-5 and ever since they’ve found their footing, it has been a top-5 group. It’s no coincidence that the Rams rise on defense has coincided to when Verse started to player much more disciplined.
Because of players like Donald and Stafford, the Rams haven’t necessarily had the drought that the Giants had before Taylor. With that said, Verse’s impact has been felt in a similar fashion. He may not be in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation now, but given that nobody is running away with the award, it isn’t completely out of reach either.
For Verse to enter the conversation, he would likely need to finish with at least 12 sacks and continue to have a positive impact on games. He already has two forced fumbles this season and has a fumble recovery. If he can finish with four or five forced fumbles, that would also help put him in the conversation. It doesn’t hurt that he’s not that far behind players like Bosa, Garrett, or Watt in any of those categories.
Again, Verse may not finish at the top of the leaderboard in every single defensive stat. However, neither did Lawrence Taylor in 1981. While sacks weren’t an official stat until the next year, Joe Klecko had 20.5 in Taylor’s rookie year and was a first-team all-pro. With that said, nobody in the NFL had bigger shoes to fill this season that Verse when he “replaced” Aaron Donald as the star on the Rams defense. After he was drafted, Verse said,
“Filling up his role, that’s a hard role to fill. That’s a big shoe to fill. That’s an out-of-this-world player, a once-in-a-lifetime future hall of fame and one of the best players to ever live. But to be able to be in this position where they expect me to come in there and fill his role, I’m ready for it. Pressure makes diamonds. I love pressure.”
That’s exactly what Verse has done. The rookie has exceeded expectations through the first nine weeks of the season and is a reason the Rams defense has played as well as it has as of late. There is still a lot of season to go and Verse has the early lead on Defensive Rookie of the Year. The question remains on whether or not he can take that next step and enter the conversation among the best players in the league.
