How Rams can help DROY Jared Verse find "10 sacks on the field" he lost in 2024

It's difficult to reconcile that the same Los Angeles Rams pass rush that only recorded 38 quarterback sacks throughout a 17-game regular season in 2024 was somehow able to generate an insane 17 quarterback sacks in season's end in the 2025 NFL Playoffs. That is what happened, and the Rams did not add an elite pass rusher at season's end.

It all happened organically.

And yet, to stand on the belief that the Rams are content with one of the fastest developing defensive fronts in 2025 would be a huge mistake. This team is taking nothing for granted. For every sack that the team recorded in 2024 during the regular season, the players have reason to suspect that they left a sack on the field.

They may be right. Jared Verse alone, Defensive Rookie of the Year and creator of 4.5 quarterback sacks last season, believes that he left 10 quarterback sacks on the field last season:

So, how can the Rams do a better job of claiming every quarterback sack that they create on the football field?

Second-year OLB Jared Verse shared this revelation at a press conference after OTAs:

"Probably the biggest thing I realized was how many sacks, not even just sacks, but big plays I missed out on. Dropping into coverage, I could have done this, or rushing the passer, I could have done that, even in the run game a couple times... So, realizing that it really is a game of inches."

Jared Verse

It's very encouraging for Verse to admit that he has a lot of room to improve. So, how does that happen?

Here comes the fixer

The Rams defensive front counted on chaos and unpredictable violence to get after the quarterback in 2024. And it worked, somewhat. But the Rams' pass rush often took on the presence of a symphony orchestra tuning up for the performance, with everyone playing a different tune, a new snippet, and the resulting sound echoing throughout the concert hall was anything but music.

This band needs a coach who specializes in pass rush. That's why the team hired former Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots Coach Drew Wilkins. Wilkens is a pass rush specialist, a coach whose mindset tracks the best ways to bring down the opposing quarterback. That is not limited to defense linemen and edge rushers.

He is capable of turning any defender into a heat seeking missile who is capable of sacking opposing quarterbacks.

It's not just the fact that a defensive back does sack the quarterback, but the chance that defensive backs and linebackers might sack the quarterback. That risk forces an offensive strategy to overprotect the quarterback, limiting eligibles who might escape the line of scrimmage to run routes. And the fewer eligibles in routes add to the defensive advantage.

WIlkins turns a standard pass rush into a game of cat and mouse. Who rushes? Who covers? And the unpredictability leaves the advantage in the hands of the defense. Even if the team only sends three or four pass rushers, blockers have to stay vigilant to stunts, delayed blitzes, and even the occasional coverage sack where the secondary gives no opportunity to the quarterback to release the football.

Even young pass rushers like Kobie Turner and Jared Verse have plenty to learn from Coach Wilkens in training camp. The orchestra tuned up in 2024. Now, the defense will deploy coordinated and specific strategies to get after the quarterback this season.

17 quarterback sacks in two games is history. It's the Rams' history from the playoffs. Now the Rams have to convert those two games of peak performance into a 2025 NFL season standard.

Jared Verse believes that he left plenty of quarterback sacks on the football field last season. He's not the only one. Coach Drew Wilkins has his work cut out for him this season. But he has a bright and motivated class to educate.

Will Jared Verse put up a dozen or more sacks in 2025? I wouldn't want to bet against him.

As always, thanks for reading.

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