Rams Legend Advised Jared Verse Prior To Being Picked By LA

Verse may be a steal for the Rams!

Oct 14, 2023; Tallahassee, Florida, USA; Florida State Seminoles defensive end Jared Verse (5) / Melina Myers-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Rams went defense with their first first-round draft pick in eight years, and they went with Florida State edge rusher Jared Verse. 

Verse, one of the top edge rushers in the draft, is poised to demonstrate his true potential at the professional level. The Rams will be relying on his performance, especially in the wake of losing Aaron Donald to retirement, a future Hall of Famer and arguably the greatest player in the team's history. 

It won't be easy, and he may not even come close to what AD did, but LA and Verse are hopeful. 

Before he was even a pro and before he attended Florida State, the 23-year-old spoke to Donald in a Zoom meeting that his coach and former coach of Donald set up when he was in Albany. 

Verse reflected on that meeting and what he took from it when he spoke to reporters on Thursday, including Los Angeles Times staff writer Gary Klein. 

"The biggest thing I took away from the questions I asked him," Verse said, "was he said, 'You don't need a huge arsenal of moves. If you have a couple good moves and execute them to the highest level of your ability you will destroy everyone.'

"And just aggression beats everything."

Los Angeles took Verse with the No. 19 pick in the draft. It's a full-circle move for LA's new edge rusher. Nobody expects Verse to be the 'Aaron Donald replacement'; however, head coach Sean McVay expects to get everything out of him right out of the gate. 

"We're never going to ask anybody to replace Aaron," McVay said, "but you do want to continue to build the front, continue to be able to do those types of things. And Jared represented an opportunity to do that.

"We did feel like that there was maybe not quite as deep of an outside linebacker group, and so to be able to get a player of his caliber was really encouraging and everybody was fired up about that."

It's been a long journey for LA's first-round pick, and while he was doubted all his life, he hopes that continues just so he can prove them wrong once again. 

"I want people to doubt me on that one," he said, "so I can prove 'em wrong one more time."

LA has themselves some hungry dogs in the trenches. 

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