Jared Verse enjoyed an outstanding first season with the Los Angeles Rams that saw him take home the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year Award.
To commemorate this achievement, Verse is one of five players who will wear a special gold shield patch on his jersey during the 2025 season.
The others also won major AP awards last season: Josh Allen (MVP), Saquon Barkley (Offensive Player of the Year), Pat Surtain II (Defensive Player of the Year) and Jayden Daniels (Offensive Rookie of the Year).
The gold patch is a subtle, but cool way for the NFL to recognize some of its top performers from a year ago:
NFL has announced their 5 players to wear 'gold shield' patches in place of the traditional NFL shield patch to honor 5 award winners 🏆
• MVP – JOSH ALLEN
• OPOY – SAQUON BARKLEY
• DPOY – PAT SURTAIN II
• OROY – JAYDEN DANIELS
• DROY – JARED VERSE pic.twitter.com/QgHahcJYt9
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) September 3, 2025
Verse led all first-year players in quarterback hits (18), pressures (77) and hurries (56). He also had the second-most tackles for loss (11) and fifth-most sacks (4.5).
Verse finished the 2024 season with 4.5 sacks, 66 total tackles, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and two passes defensed while starting 16 games. He added two more sacks and a fumble recovery in two playoff games.
While Verse put up impressive numbers as a rookie, he believes he left at least 10 sacks on the field and vowed to improve his total this season.
Verse will keep the gold patch in 2026 if he wins Defensive Player of the Year this season, which he previously stated is one of his biggest goals.
Jared Verse ranked 53rd on NFL Top 100 for 2025 season
As Verse enters his second season with the Rams, he was ranked 53rd on the NFL Top 100 list going into 2025.
Verse is among four Rams players to be included in this year’s NFL Top 100, along with running back Kyren Williams (No. 85), quarterback Matthew Stafford (No. 59) and wide receiver Puka Nacua (No. 41).
He had the difficult task of replacing future Hall of Famer Aaron Donald last season and did about as good of a job as anyone could have expected.
Verse, who has many parallels to Donald, made it clear that he wants to become one of the all-time greats in the NFL after being recognized for a stellar rookie season.
“I think it’s a small step towards (becoming one of the best players ever),” Verse said after winning the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award. “But there’s a lot of people that have won this award that after they win it, they get satisfied. That’s the main thing, you can’t get satisfied. This is just a small step to a big goal.”
