Byron Young's rankings snub will have Rams fans scratching their heads

The 2026 Los Angeles Rams own the distinction of rostering the No. 1 edge rusher in the game, Myles Garrett. But his counterpart, Byron Young, last season's team sacks leader, isn't so shabby himself. Nonetheless, the 2025 Pro Bowler was excluded from ESPN's Top 10 rankings at the position. 

Young was not among the honorable mentions. He was not among the also-received-votes list. He was nowhere to be found among the 19 edge rushers named in any category. Ouch.

His former teammate, Jared Verse, did earn an honorable-mention berth. If anything, the spirit of friendly competition should only stoke the flames for Young after being excluded from a lengthy list of his peers.

Byron Young belongs somewhere in the rankings

Young has a strong case to be featured, if not in the Top 10, at least alongside Verse. His 12 sacks in 2025 tied for eighth in the league. Young is not just a high-end pass rusher but also a dependable force against the run and when dropping back in coverage. No one with at least seven sacks - covering the top-45 leaderboard for the stat - matched Young's 82 total tackles, an indicator of his versatility within the Rams defense.

PFF graded him ninth out of 115 edge defenders; Verse trailed just behind at 11th. Young's 64 total pressures ranked 13th and he led the pack with 47 stops. 

On top of that, Young took a massive leap last season from an already-productive baseline. He nearly doubled his Approximate Value, per Pro Football Reference, by going from 7 AV to 12. As Young reaps the benefits of Garrett's presence, it's hard to imagine anything less than a career year. 

It's rather odd, then, to see Young omitted entirely from Jeremy Fowler's Top 10. Not that the players listed are not deserving. Hardly. It's also not a knock on Verse to wonder why Young wasn't there along with him. 

The honorable mentions form an impressive group: Verse, Baltimore's Trey Hendrickson, and Jacksonville's Josh Hines-Allen. What's more debatable is Young's absence from an also-ran pool that includes no one with a higher sack total or AV, and only one player, Pittsburgh's Nick Herbig, with a better PFF grade. Strange.

It's not clear Verse should be ahead of him, either, given that Young holds the edge in sacks and PFF grade and has the same AV score. Safe to say Young was snubbed, if not altogether forgotten in the process of assembling the list.

And, hey, the NFL boasts a long line of talented edge rushers; a name or two slipping through the cracks isn't unthinkable. It happens. Whatever the case, Young certainly got the short end of the stick, and it should only add fuel to his fire. 

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