Rams rookie Jared Verse not satisfied by first month of career

LOS ANGELES — When Rams outside linebacker Jared Verse was named the NFL’s defensive rookie of the month for September, he didn’t spend much time dwelling on it. Because he didn’t feel like he had too superlative of a month.

“It’s more inspiring than anything, because I did not think I had a great month,” Verse said. “I missed a lot of plays, I missed a lot of tackles. I missed a lot of opportunities to make my team better. … So now thinking about it, it’s like once all those plays start getting made and everything like that, OK, it’s going to be a lot more than that.”

In some ways, Verse’s September was defined by missed opportunities. He led all rookies with 17 quarterback pressures, but converted those snaps into only one sack, in the first half of Week 1. And Verse missed 11 tackles in 28 opportunities according to Pro Football Focus, a 39.3% miss rate.

But after some constructive film sessions, Verse feels he has found the culprit: Technique issues that stem from him converting from a defensive end in college to an outside linebacker in the NFL. He’s started coming out to practice early to work with his position coach, Joe Coniglio, on those fixes.

“When [Coniglio] slowed down the game and I saw some of them, I’m like, ‘OK, that’s the issue,’” Verse said. “I figured out what the problem was, now it’s the problem of fixing that. Some things are embedded, but you have to rebreak them to rebuild them better than ever. … I’d rather be close enough and then miss out on it than my problem be not getting there.”

Expectations were high for Verse entering his rookie season. He was the Rams’ first first-round pick since 2016, and the fourth defensive player off the board when he was selected at No. 19 overall.

But he’s been asked to do a lot of different things than he did in college, and is learning on the fly as he adjusts to the higher level of physical competition in the NFL, not to mention the mental aspect of the game.

As defensive coordinator Chris Shula explained Thursday, in college, most offenses spread the ball out, without a tight end next to an offensive tackle. That limits the kinds of blocks that edge rushers like Verse face at that level.

“When that happens, really the tackle, if it’s a run, can really only go down and maybe someone could pull at you or [the tackle] could come out at you. There are two types of blocks you can get,” Shula explained, “whereas in the NFL, there are a lot of different ways that [head coach] Sean [McVay] and a bunch of these guys like to affect the edges. A lot of that is to slow these guys down, these elite players, because they’re so good and they’re so talented that if you just give them a clean edge, it’s going to be tough.”

Not that Verse wants to hear that as an excuse for some of his misses in September.

“To be quite honest, I’m really hard on myself,” Verse said. “I think it should be an immediate thing. But I also understand it’s not that. Some things, it’s just going to take a little bit of time to get built. But the way I see it, I can just push myself more so it can be a quicker transition.”

Briefly

Cornerback Darious Williams is expected to play for the Rams (1-3) against the Green Bay Packers (2-2), McVay said Friday. He added that Williams has looked good in practices, saying, “He’s got a great look in his eye.”

Defensive tackle Larrell Murchison broke his foot in his first practice back from injured reserve Wednesday, McVay said. Murchison was technically activated from the injured reserve Friday, but that was to give him the opportunity to return from this new injury at a later point this season.

The Rams signed defensive end Jonah Williams off the Vikings’ practice squad to replace Murchison. Williams played his first three seasons with the Rams.