Every Defensive Rookie of the Year, from Donald to Verse

How have Defensive Rookie of the Years fared in the last decade?

The year after Aaron Donald retired, and a decade after Donald won Defensive Rookie of the Year, Rams edge rusher Jared Verse won the same award with the same team. How high should expectations be for Verse going into year two and the rest of his career?

Here are the previous 10 DROY winners:

2014 – DT Aaron Donald, Rams

Hall of Famer who is in the conversation as the greatest defensive player of all-time. Donald’s QB hits went from 13 as a rookie to 37 in year two and he finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting, losing to J.J. Watt.

2015 – CB Marcus Peters, Chiefs

Traded to the Rams in 2018, Peters spent a season and a half playing on the same defense as Donald. After intercepting eight passes as a rookie, Peters continued to be one of the league’s greatest ballhawks by intercepting 19 more more passes over the next four seasons, including 5 with the Rams in 22 games.

But Peters also allowed a lot of yards and touchdowns and despite making All-Pro twice by the time he was 26, Peters saw his career nosedive by 27.

2016 – OLB Joey Bosa, Chargers

There were some questions about Bosa going into the 2016 draft, but the Chargers scoffed at the skeptics and picked him third overall. Bosa rewarded the team with 10.5 sacks as a rookie and 17 tackles for a loss in only 12 games. He increased his sack total to 12.5 in year two, but the first signs of trouble happened in 2018 and then after three straight Pro Bowls (2019-2021), Bosa became known more for injuries than production.

He’s now playing for the Bills in 2025, Bosa’s first season without the Chargers.

2017 – CB Marshon Lattimore, Saints

The second straight Ohio State alum to win Defensive Rookie of the Year, Lattimore intercepted five passes as a rookie with the Saints. In his second season, Lattimore added four forced fumbles, including three recoveries.

Lattimore was in an elite class of corners until 2021, when he was still only 25, but he has fallen off in the past three years. Lattimore has only played in 26 games in the last three years and was traded to Washington last season. The Commanders are banking on a return to form, but Lattimore wasn’t very good for them in the playoffs, allowing 10 catches for 154 yards and a touchdown in three games.

2018 – LB Shaquille Leonard, Colts

I would have assumed that of all the positions on defense, the one that could sustain his success for the longest would be an off-ball linebacker like Leonard. As a rookie, the second round pick was absolutely dominant:

• 163 tackles (1st in NFL)
• 111 solo tackles (1st)
• 7 sacks
• 2 INT
• 4 FF
• 12 TFL
• 8 QB hits
• Defensive Rookie of the Year
• First-Team All-Pro middle linebacker

Leonard was up there among the greatest rookie linebacker season of all-time, and then he followed that up in 2019 with 5 interceptions, 5 sacks, and 121 tackles in 13 games.

It almost all fell apart at once — Leonard made the Pro Bowl two more times and forced eight fumbles in 2021) — but then back, head, and nose injuries in 2022 caused him to miss 14 games. Leonard hasn’t been the same since and he hasn’t played in a game since 2023. He’s still only 29.

2019 – DE Nick Bosa, 49ers

Bosa’s rookie stats included 9 sacks and 25 QB hits, but then he missed practically the entire season in 2020. However, Bosa returned with 15.5 sacks in 2021 and an NFL-leading 18.5 sacks in 2022. He’s been one of the most dominant pass rushers when healthy, but he’s seen his numbers dip in the past two years without DeMeco Ryans as the defensive coordinator.

Bosa is only 27, but we’ve seen from other players on this list that 27 can be “older” than you think.

2020 – DE Chase Young, Commanders

At this point, Young makes four of five Defensive Rookie of the Year winners in a row who played at Ohio State. But Chase Young is the worst of them and hasn’t resembled anything close to a budding star since his rookie campaign and he won DROY because it was a rather weak competition.

Young had 7.5 sacks as a rookie, beating out Jeremy Chinn, Patrick Queen, and Antoine Winfield for the award.

He played in only 12 games for Washington over the next two seasons (and only had 1.5 sacks) and was traded to the 49ers in 2023. Young had a slight rebound in 2024 with the Saints, recording 5.5 sacks and 21 QB hits, but he’s nothing close to what you’d expect of a number two pick and a DROY winner.

2021 – EDGE Micah Parsons, Cowboys

On the other hand, Parsons is exactly what teams hope for in a Defensive Rookie of the Year winner, as he’s been consistent over four seasons even in spite of changing positions and defensive coordinators.

Parsons had 13 sacks as a rookie, 13.5 sacks in year two, 14 sacks in year three, and last season he had 12 sacks in only 13 games.

He has yet to win Defensive Player of the Year, but that seems inevitable.

2022 – CB Sauce Gardner, Jets

Will Gardner avoid the cornerback curse? Because if there’s a trend of the corners on this list so far, it’s that their best seasons are early in their careers.

Sure enough, Gardner’s best season to date was his rookie campaign in 2022. His passing yards allowed have gotten worst in each successive season and he went from 9.8 yards per completion allowed in 2022 to 16.4 yards per completion allowed in 2024.

Gardner is a great corner, but also a bad tackler and teams have a better idea of how to attack him.

2023 – OLB Will Anderson, Texans

Of all the names on this list, including Verse, seven of them are first round picks who rush the passer. And remember that even though Jared Verse was the 19th overall pick, the first 14 picks of the 2024 draft were offensive players so Verse was one of the top defensive prospects in the entire class.

If a team drafts an edge rusher in the top-5, there’s a good chance that player is meant to be the top Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate and more. That means that Abdul Carter is more likely to win DROY than Travis Hunter and just about anyone else.

Anderson, the 3rd pick in 2023, had 7 sacks as a rookie, then 11 sacks in year two. He played in 15 games as a rookie compared to 14 games in 2024, but his TFL went up from 10 to 16, while his QB hits dipped from 22 to 19.

Anderson probably improved in his second year, but it doesn’t necessarily stand out on the stat sheet. He’s still only playing in 63% of the snaps, so I think a fair question is, “Has Will Anderson hit his ceiling?”

2024 – OLB Jared Verse, Rams

Consider that Verse played in 75% of the snaps as a rookie. Obviously he’s already more involved and trusted in L.A.’s defense than players like Anderson and Young are in theirs.

Though Verse only had 4.5 sacks as a rookie, his 33 pressures in 2024 are more than in any season by Will Anderson or Chase Young.

Jared Verse will need to work on his tackling (20.5% missed tackle rate as a rookie) and he needs to convert pressures into sacks, and both of those outcomes are more likely than not. A good prediction for Verse’s second season would be hovering around double-digit sacks, 30-40 pressures, 18-20 tackles for a loss, and multiple forced turnovers.

That may not put Verse into Aaron Donald territory quite yet, but it certainly puts him into the Bosa-verse.