The Los Angeles Rams have selected once on Day 1 since hiring HC Sean McVay in 2017. The lone Day 1 player was outside linebacker Jared Verse. Was he worth it? In 2024, the 19th overall selection of the 2024 NFL Draft was honored with the 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year. In the modern era of the NFL, only two players come to mind who have earned that honor in their rookie season. In 2024, Verse landed DROY.
10 years earlier, All-Pro defensive lineman Aaron Donald earned the 2014 DROY honors. In that year, Aaron Donald was selected on Day 1 with the 13th overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft
Comparisons would invariably happen. The mystique and presence of All-Pro DL Aaron Donald will eventually fade from memory. And if the young Rams edge rusher Jared Verse delivers on his promise throughout his NFL career, he will emerge as the next Rams defensive superstar. But as Verse's star rises and Donald's star sunsets, will fans appreciate both players separately? That is, will fans avoid the whimsical temptation to compare the two players?
It is inevitable. Some day, fans will be lured into that conversation, just as we see the annual anointing of rookies to NFL legends in the days leading up to and after the annual NFL draft event. But as rookies begin to realize their NFL potential and put up impressive statistics on their front, comparisons become inevitable.
For Rams fans, the idea of comparing any defender is enough to scoff at, now. But in five years, if Verse becomes a new version of NFL All-Pro and Defensive Player of the Year, comparisons will follow.
I don't think that it needs to be spelled out, but in the interest of clarification, the event triggered when Jared Verse called out Aaron Donald to challenge him to work out together was a perfect example of Jim Croce's 1972 hit: Don't Mess Around With Jim. When it comes to the Los Angeles Rams, you don't:
- Pull on Superman's cape
- Spit into the wind
- Pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
- And you don't challenge All-Pro defensive lineman, Aaron Donald.
ask and you shall receive 🤝 pic.twitter.com/GsUinTtxQP
— NFL (@NFL) June 7, 2025
But the stage was set. Verse challenged Donald. Donald accepted. What came next was simple to anticipate. But we don't stop at the surface. After we cover the events, let's dare to dive a bit deeper.
Jared Verse meets the original All-Pro
LA Rams DROY Jared Verse did not challenge Aaron Donald as a publicity stunt. At least, not entirely. From the moment that Aaron Donald announced his retirement, the news triggered disbelief in some fans' minds. An enclave of Rams fans gathered to make the case that if the team managed to return to the NFL Playoffs without him, Aaron Donald would return to the team and help to carry them through the postseason in a fashion similar to that of formerly retired DB Eric Weddle.
But the Rams did earn the right to compete in the postseason. Aaron Donald did not unretire.
All the while, rookie edge rusher Jared Verse had stepped up to become the lightning rod of this defense. He was the defender who became incensed when visiting Minnesota Vikings fans seemed to celebrate the injury to a teammate, DB Kamren Curl. The Vikings had scored 14 points quickly. But after SKOL chants filled SoFI over a shaken-up Curl, Verse erupted.
Verse loves to poke the bear. He openly stated disliking Philadelphia Eagles fans before the Rams returned to face the Eagles on the road in a snowstorm. The gamble nearly paid off, as the Rams put up a valiant fight in that contest.
But taunting Rams legend Aaron Donald was a different category of challenge. This was not about the football field. Jared Verse was entering the Lion's Den, the weight room that was built to Donald's specifications. And that site also served as Aaron Donald's temple, a place where he would maintain his power and physique with a disciplined routine that he had grown to develop and master over many years.
And Jared Verse, true to his word, entered Aaron Donald's weight room to work out with the master.
Aaron Donald retired on a high note. He is as powerful as ever. To be fair, the NFL is only one aspect of his life, and it certainly powered Donald to fund his other endeavors. Aaron Donald is active in giving back to the community. He is active in marketing his clothing line. He has become more than an entrepreneur. He is as much of a force in business and philanthropy as he was in the NFL.
And with the Jared Verse challenge, he had the opportunity to leverage all of the eyes and popularity of the NFL once more. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of Jared Verse.
Aaron Donald seemed to be as fresh as a daisy, while the post-workout imagery and footage of Jared Verse showed an exhausted and spent young man.
The legend lives on. The aura and mystique of Aaron Donald continue to grow, just as everyone expected. But was there more to the story?
Jared Verse seized the baton directly from the Rams legend
If you have watched the Marvel movie - Captain America: The First Avenger, you know that even before he was administered the Super Soldier serum, Steve Rogers had no quit in him. He was a 98-pound weakling, but his catch phrase was comical: "Had enough? I can do this all day."
At a deeper level, that is the motive behind Jared Verse's open challenge. This was not about beating Aaron Donald in a weight room. This was more about paying homage to a Rams legend, and in return, laying claim to the baton that Aaron Donald still held in the eyes of many Rams fans.
Deer flee from predators. Bears hunt. And Jared Verse will always be a lightning rod. He will not shrink away from a challenge; rather, he chooses to embrace the challenge that he often instigates. He holds the essence of a passionate competitor, willing to face even the legendary Aaron Donald if only to measure himself against one of the NFL greats.
In this case, Jared Verse fell short. Well, this time.
Verse is not about the accolades, the applause, the bright lights, or the big stage. He truly is about becoming the best version of himself and is willing to do everything necessary to achieve that constant state of self-improvement.
Should the 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year have been content? If you believe that, then you haven't followed the career of Jared Verse. In the competitive world of the NFL, you either improve or you don't. Verse knows this. He attacks every practice, every drill, and every day in competition with his true friend and teammate, Braden Fiske.
But he is also in competition with himself. By challenging Aaron Donald, he has proven to both coaches and players that he is taking on the next level. And that means that he is willingly prepared to do what it takes to get there.
Jared Verse now knows what it takes to become an NFL legend
You don't know what you have until you lose it. While that may be true, you simply do not know what you do not have until you claim it. For Jared Verse, he had to face Aaron Donald and compete with him in Donald's weight room to understand the lifelong dedication required to become an NFL Legend.
Now, he knows.
Competition in the NFL is stressful. It's a work-hard, play-hard environment that has few comparisons. It's a constant stream of learning, developing, and growing while constantly being under the microscope, facing assessment, testing, and projections. So when the opportunity arises to break the tension and get a good laugh, players and coaches are eager to pounce on the opportunity.
Just as Coach McVay did recently when he duped Jared Verse into believing that Aaron Donald was introduced in a team meeting:
Humbling? Perhaps. But Verse embraces those moments that ground him. He would rather face the mountain in an attempt to climb it than be buried by the avalanche of trying to escape it. This young man is built differently. And he understands that the best contributors are not always the statistical leaders of the team.
Jared Verse is a pressure-creating tornado to opposing quarterbacks, but is content to chase them into the waiting arms of teammates. He is a powerhouse who is capable of winning any one-on-one blocking situations, but celebrates double and triple teams because those scenarios create winnable matchups for teammates.
Jared Verse understands that everyone has a part to play to contribute to a dominant defense, and he is simply doing his best to fill his role.
Perhaps most of all, Jared Verse simply gets it. He understands more than Xs and Os. He is as much of an entertainer and strategist as he is a tactician and game-day hero.
It requires no advanced statistical analysis or crystal ball to scry that Jared Verse will be even more productive and important to the Rams' defense in 2025. But it does take time to find all of the breadcrumbs that he drops for the attentive eye to find. And it does take patience to connect all of the dots.
Many will interpret Jared Verse's challenge to Aaron Donald as a cocky young defender getting his comeuppance. But if you peel back the layers just a bit further, you can recognize that this was Jared Verse's announcement to the entire NFL that he is ready to take on a larger role among the NFL elites.
Now, you know too. I, for one, cannot wait to see him in dominating action in 2025. As always, thanks for reading.
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