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Jared Verse has only two sacks in the last six games for the Los Angeles Rams. It’s a mild surprise coming off of his NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors.
Let’s take a deeper dive using Pro Football Focus (PFF) data and potentially bust the myth of a sophomore slump.
On the surface, Verse’s PFF pass rushing grade has declined from borderline elite at 85.5 as a rookie to 78.8 in year two. He’s already amassed 149 career pressures and 14 sacks.
His pass rushing efficiency has objectively decreased from last season. He has 77% of the pass rushing snaps that he had last year but only 67% of the amount of pressures. Verse’s pass rush win rate decreased from 19.7% (fifth among EDGE’s) to 17.1% in 2025 (10th). A 2.6% change seems like an immaterial variance; however, when you are looking at 600 pass rushes over the entirety of the season it could be the difference of approximately 15 pressures.
Don’t get me wrong. Verse is still a top 10 EDGE rusher even if he’s not performing as well in this department as he did over his rookie season. It’s still disappointing that Verse was seemingly on a trajectory to become one of the very best pass rushers in the NFL. The Rams should still be glad to have someone of his caliber and skillset.
If there was one area to complain about Verse’s game over his rookie year, it certainly was his struggles in tackling. He missed 21 attempts in 2024, which was good for 25.6% of his total attempts. This is an area where Verse has significantly improved, as he has only missed five tackles so far (10.4%). The 2025 miss rate is good for ninth among EDGE’s.
The year-over-year difference in this facet represents a much more dramatic decline as opposed to pass rushing. Verse’s PFF run grade was impressive at 81.0 a year ago (fifth). He now has fallen to 63.6 in 2025 (31st). Things improve when you strip out efficiency and only look at things from a volume perspective. He’s sixth in run stops this season with 28 and ranked third with 41 stops last season.
To Verse’s credit, he’s forced three fumbles already this year. These aren’t exactly Nate Landman numbers, but it’s still a positive for the defense.
Jared Verse deserves credit for shoring up his tackling; however, he’s taken notable steps back in two of the most important areas of his game: run defense and pass rushing. He remains one of the best EDGE defenders in the NFL and maintains the potential to one day become the very best.
Still, if we are being objective, Verse was overall better in his rookie...
