Los Angeles Rams outside linebacker Jared Verse was a big winner at the 2025 NFL Honors last week as he won AP Defensive Rookie of the Year honors.
It’s a well-deserved honor for Verse, who led all rookies 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 had the difficult task of replacing future Hall of Famer Aaron Donald after the Rams selected him with the 19th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Donald was named Defensive Rookie of the Year for his production in 2014 and congratulated Verse on the achievement. “Congrats, man. Well-deserved, bro. Well-deserved,” Donald said in a video.
From one DROY to another. 🤝 pic.twitter.com/xQzykdimDL
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) February 7, 2025
“Let’s keep it up. We ain’t satisfied. We still hungry, though. We going to enjoy this one, but we got a lot more to go, a lot more to accomplish, man. From individual accolades to team success, just continue to lead, continue to play.
“Continue to have fun doing it, man. It’s a short time you get to do this game and play this game, so take it all in and enjoy it. Much love. I’m proud of you, bro. Let’s go!”
There are a lot of parallels between Donald and Verse, and the Rams have to be thrilled that they were able to draft him just weeks after Donald announced his retirement.
Verse was one of the five finalists for Defensive Rookie of the year, along with his Rams teammate Braden Fiske, Philadelphia Eagles’ Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell, and Chop Robinson of the Miami Dolphins.
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.
Jared Verse motivated by Rams’ playoff loss to Eagles
Jared Verse put up massive numbers against the Rams’ playoff loss to the Eagles, recording four total tackles, two sacks, three tackles for loss and two quarterback hits.
Following the loss, Verse sent a strong message about his desire to never experience the feeling of letdown again. “I don’t ever want to feel like this again,” Verse said after the loss.
“Don’t want my teammates to feel like this again. I (don’t) want to look in their eyes and see anything but pure bliss and pure happiness. And I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
