Being the Rams' 1st-round pick was 'dream come true' for FSU's Jared Verse
The Los Angeles Rams haven't exactly had a habit of keeping their first-round NFL Draft picks.
In fact, their decision to draft Florida State defensive end Jared Verse Thursday night with the 19th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft marked the first time since 2016 that the Rams used a first-round pick.
The last time the Rams drafted a player in the first round, Verse was 15 years old. A lot has happened for him since then going from an unrated and barely recruited high-school tight end prospect to breakout defensive end at Albany to a two-time All-American at FSU with 18 sacks and 29.5 tackles for loss over two seasons with the Seminoles.
A lot has happened for the Rams since then as well, winning a Super Bowl in 2022 and appearing in another in 2019.
While some may feel pressure about being the Rams' first first-round pick in nearly a decade, it's clear Verse doesn't feel that way.
"That means it's time to work," Verse said in a Zoom call with Rams media members Thursday night when asked about what it means to be the team's first first-round pick since 2016. "It's time to show them they didn't make a mistake, time to show them what we do. I'm excited for it, I'm excited to get to work."
Verse's selection by the Rams concludes one of the more improbable rises by a draft prospect in recent memory. His only offer coming out of high school was to Albany and they sold him on his future as a defensive end even though he was a tight end at Central Columbia High in Bloomsburg, Penn.
"It makes you hungry. There's a lot of players who get stuff just handed to them," Verse said on the Zoom. "Especially now in college football, you can be a great player and get a couple million just going to a school. But me, I had to be hungry. I didn't get anything at Albany, I used to have to work at Amazon, DoorDash, I used to have to do all those things to make ends meet."
That would seem to make Thursday's draft moment that much sweeter for Verse, who celebrated with about 20 family members and a few close friends at his parents' house in Phoenix. It caps off years of belief in himself when few did.
"It's a dream come true. That's the only way I can put it. It's a dream come true," Verse said. "You work your whole life for something. I talked to the Rams throughout the process, last week I got to meet with them again and it felt like the right thing. Hearing them call my name with the Los Angeles Rams attached to it, dream come true."
The pressure of being the Rams' first first-round pick in eight years is far from the only pressure that may be pushed onto the former Seminole with his new team in Los Angeles.
Both inside the building and from fans of the Rams, Verse will be tasked with helping replace the production of one of the best pass-rushing defensive tackles in NFL history, Aaron Donald.
Donald retired in March after 10 seasons with the Rams over which he racked up 111 sacks and 176 tackles for loss as the four-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year and an eight-time All-Pro.
While Verse is viewed by the Rams as an outside linebacker in their 3-4 defensive scheme, it's clear his selection was in large part because of the team's belief that he can replace some of what the Rams are losing with Donald's retirement.
"Filling up his role, that's all I want to fill. Those are big shoes to fill. That's an out-of-this-world player. That's a once-in-a-lifetime hall of famer, one of the best players to ever live," Verse said. "To be in the position where they expect me to be able to come in there and fill that role, that's something I'm ready for. Pressure makes diamonds and that's something I'm ready for."
It's fitting in a way that Verse is being viewed as one of the successors to Donald in the Rams' pass rush. His head coach at Albany, Greg Gattuso, helped recruit Donald to Pitt when he was the defensive tackles coach there and coached him his true freshman season in 2010.
When Verse was at Albany during the coronavirus pandemic, Gattuso set up a Zoom between Donald and members of the Albany football team so that they could gather intel from one of the best active players in the NFL at the time.
"I got to pick his brain a little bit. I asked him a couple questions that actually helped me elevate my game," Verse recalled. "The biggest thing I took away from the questions I asked him was he said that you don't need a huge arsenal of (pass-rush) moves. If you have a couple good moves and you execute them to the highest of your ability, you will destroy everyone. Aggression beats everything. Those are a couple lessons I learned from him."
"We're not going to ask him to replace Aaron, but we'll definitely ask him to help our football team..." Rams GM Les Snead told reporters Thursday night. "He's one of those guys that you just want to watch another game on. You can tell he cares about football, he has fun playing football and, oh, by the way, he's pretty disruptive and violent. You think defense, the way he plays is next to the word in the dictionary."
Down the stretch of the 2023 season, Verse and the FSU defense really took over after star quarterback Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending injury. The defensive end standout had 4.5 sacks and six tackles for loss in the Seminoles' wins at Florida and over Louisville in the ACC Championship Game to put an impressive bow on his FSU career.
That was something that really stood out to Rams head coach Sean McVay about Verse, who was the third edge prospect drafted Thursday night after UCLA defensive end Laiutu Latu and Alabama defensive end Dallas Turner.
"I thought he played his best ball as the season progressed. That, to me, says a lot about him. Especially when they had the injury to their quarterback, that defense put the team on their back to help them have a really special season," McVay told reporters Thursday. "The way he plays the game from the first snap to the last snap, he wears people down. He's physical, violent. His football character shows up on the tape and then when you hear about the way he's wired, the way he interacts with his teammates, those are all things we're looking for and those are the type of people we want to be Rams. He certainly checks a lot of those boxes."
In Verse's estimation, so much of what helped him get to where he is now is the chip on his shoulder. He's had it since people doubted he could play college football at any level and it's only grown as Verse has continued to prove the doubters wrong.
While the NFL was his ultimate goal, it doesn't sound like that chip is off his shoulder. He's still got more to prove.
"I'm happy to keep proving people wrong along the way and now I tell people I just want to be the best, period," Verse said. "I want people to doubt me on that one so I can prove them wrong one more time."
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