Rams rookie Jared Verse is off to a hot start, but is he a tackling liability?
There is only one player in the NFL who has missed more tackles this season than Jared Verse, and that player is a linebacker with more than twice as many total tackles as Verse. There are only two players in the NFL with a higher missed tackle rate (missed tackles/tackles) than Verse and both of them are cornerbacks.
Does Jared Verse have a flaw in his game when it comes to over-pursuing, wrapping up, finishing sacks, losing contain, and missing tackles?
Probably.
But given his unique physical advantages, this could be a fixable issue that signifies that Verse could become an elite edge rusher in the future. However at this time, in this year, the 24-year-old has plenty left to fix before he becomes great.
Here is Verse’s game log with the missed tackles highlighted:
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As you can see, this isn’t only contained to the first month or two of the season. According to Pro-Football-Reference, Verse missed three tackles last month against the Eagles, then three more two weeks ago against the Bills.
Those teams are hard to tackle.
But Verse doesn’t havae a sack in any of his last 5 games and he doesn’t have a pressure in three of the last five. In fact, he has more missed tackles (6) than pressures (5) since Week 10’s loss to the Miami Dolphins.
Turf Show Times posted this question to Twitter looking to confirm with Rams fans if they also notice Jared Verse’s potential “tackling issue”:
Jared Verse is listed with the 2nd most missed tackles and the 3rd-highest missed tackle rate.
Does this line up with what you’ve seen?
— TurfShowTimes (@TurfShowTimes) December 18, 2024
The answers:
YES.
He’s too aggressive for his own good. I like how aggressive he is but he needs to control that and not overshoot tackles
— Gabe Campos (@GabeCampos1499) December 18, 2024
He’s been great, but it’s obvious that he needs a lot of work. He’s always in the back field and just misses the QB or RB. He doesn’t know how to keep contain.
— HotChocolateFF (LAR 8-6) (@HotChocolateFF) December 18, 2024
Yep he needs to channel his energy
— DEB (@dwisniew269) December 18, 2024
He’s missed a bunch of tackles early on…just needs to wrap up and finish
— Sandy Kaup (@STLSandman) December 18, 2024
It was really really obvious against the cardinals and eagles. It allowed hurts and Murray to scramble for infinity and get a pass in. I’ll have to go back and watch some more recent games to see if he’s improved.
— LetsGoRAMS.LA (@LetsGoRAMS_LA) December 18, 2024
Yes, always the first in the back field but cant seem to ever hold on for the tackle. I think he will get better at this, tough for a rookie, these guys much stronger than what they’re used to
— x- Ajjjjj (@aj_derosa) December 18, 2024
Yes. He’s too fast for his own good, but the game will slow down for him. I’m hyped to see that happen
— Ty Talks (@TyTalksPOD) December 18, 2024
When we get into more of the good news with Verse, the encouraging signs for why he could become elite, turn to Next Gen Stats:
- Verse has the 5th-most pressures in the NFL (62) behind Hunter, Hendrickson, Garrett, and Young
- Verse has a higher pressure rate (16.9%) than players like Chase Young, Brian Burns, Chris Jones, Will McDonald, Jonathan Greenard, Josh Hines-Allen, Maxx Crosby, Will Anderson, and Nick Bosa
- Verse has an average “Get-Off” of 0.82 seconds, which is faster than Burns, Jones, McDonald, Hines-Allen, and only a tick behind Danielle Hunter (0.81) and Crosby (0.80)
With his power and quick get-off, Verse has the tools to be one of the top-10 edge rushers in the NFL, if not top-5.
But Next Gen Stats notes that yeah, Verse is not having as much of an impact lately as he did in the first two months of the season. As Blaine Grisak wrote last week, that could be the rookie wall. He could also be facing more difficult matchups than he did in the past and teams now have a book on Verse, how to neutralize him, that maybe they didn’t have before.
With the Jets on deck, Aaron Rodgers seems a lot easier to sack than Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts. So maybe Verse can break the streak this week, instead of breaking the tackle.
