Aaron Donald already approves of this young Rams pass rusher's effort

While he may no longer be playing for the LA Rams, you can be sure that former All-Pro defensive lineman Aaron Donald has not severed ties with his former team. Not yet. And in his absence, there are a number of players who, while knowingly unable to fill his shoes on the team's defense, are eager to use the legacy and memory of Aaron Donald as motivation to inspire their own mark on the NFL over their careers.

And much like Aaron Donald's arrival to the LA Rams football team in Round 1 of the 2014 NFL draft, former Florida State rookie outside linebacker Jared Verse hopes that his Round 1 selection in the 2024 NFL Draft is not the only similarity that he shares with Aaron Donald. He would love nothing more than to explode into the NFL scene with a patented arsenal of pass rush moves that will have fans of all NFL teams sitting up and taking notice.

Much like Aaron Donald did on this bull rush by Jared Verse that pancaked a Dallas Cowboys offensive tackle:

And yes, that is Aaron Donald's Instagram account that shared that video extract. I think that it's safe to say that Aaron Donald was absolutely impressed.

It's no small feat to be compared with Cowboys elite pass rusher Micah Parsons by a Dallas Cowboys beat writer, but Jared Verse made that much of an impression on Cowboys players, and writers. Rams coverage by ESPN Los Angeles is already aboard his bandwagon:

Well, if he enjoyed that, there is plenty more where that came from.

While the Rams defense no longer has the power and elite production of AD this season, that is not to say that the defense is powerless. In many ways, the rise of so many young standouts like OLB Byron Young, NT/DT Kobie Turner, combined with rookies DT Braden Fiske and OLB Jared Verse, has the Rams stock on defense rising.rapidly.

As HC Sean McVay elaborated in this interview below, this defense can be quite good with 11 players on the football field playing as one coordinated defense. And from what we saw in their joint practice and scrimmage with the Dallas Cowboys, this defense is already showing a strong pass rush.

Clearly, rookie OLB Jared Verse is showing up in mid-season form already. It's unlikely that fans will see him making any appearances in preseason games. But he will certainly be one of the players that fans will be eager to see perform when the 2024 NFL season begins.

When that happens, you can bet that Aaron Donald will be watching too.

Thanks for reading.