Player
Byron Young
EDGE · LA
Byron Young: facts drawn from the play-by-play.
Career arc: 8 → 7.5 → 12. The 2025 leap turned a solid 3rd-rounder into the Rams' franchise edge — ahead of Verse.
TrendYoung regular-season defensive line by year
| Year | G | Sacks | QB Hits | TFL | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 17 | 8.0 | 19 | 8 | 2 |
| 2024 | 17 | 7.5 | 13 | 12 | 1 |
| 2025 | 17 | 12.0 | 29 | 12 | 1 |
Sacks and QB hits per season
| Season | Count |
|---|---|
| 2023 sacks | 8 |
| 2024 sacks | 7.5 |
| 2025 sacks | 12 |
Drafted 77th overall in 2023 out of Tennessee, Young's rookie line was already a hit at his draft slot: 8 sacks, 19 QB hits, 17 games started. The 2024 follow-up dipped slightly in sacks (7.5) but TFLs rose to 12 — a sign the pressure was still arriving even if the finishes weren't.
Then 2025: 12 sacks, 29 QB hits, 12 TFLs in 17 games. The QB-hit total nearly doubled, and the sack total jumped 60% over his previous best. He's gone from 'good 3rd-rounder' to 'Top-10 EDGE production' in a single year.
2023 EDGE class: Young is 2nd in career sacks behind only Will Anderson Jr. — and gaining on him.
Comparison2023 EDGE draft class career sacks (top 8)
| Player | Pick | Team | Career Sacks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will Anderson Jr. | 3 | HOU | 30.0 |
| Byron Young | 77 | LA | 27.5 |
| Tuli Tuipulotu | 54 | LAC | 26.0 |
| Kobie Turner | 89 | LA | 24.0 |
| Will McDonald IV | 15 | NYJ | 21.5 |
| Yaya Diaby | 48 | TB | 19.0 |
| Nick Herbig | 132 | PIT | 16.0 |
| Tyree Wilson | 7 | LV | 12.0 |
Young's 27.5 career sacks from pick #77 is the second-highest career total in the 2023 EDGE class — behind only Will Anderson Jr., who went 3rd overall.
The deeper finding: of the eight 2023 EDGE first-rounders (Anderson, McDonald, Wilson, plus four others not pictured), only Anderson is ahead of Young in career production. Young, Tuipulotu (#54), and Turner (#89) — all day-two picks — have all outproduced every first-rounder *except* Anderson. The class is the textbook case for fading EDGE draft capital after pick 10.
The Verse + Young combo in 2025: 19.5 sacks, the Rams' best two-EDGE duo since the Donald/Floyd era.
MilestoneTop 2025 Rams pass rushers
| Player | Sacks | QB Hits | TFL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Byron Young | 12.0 | 29 | 12 |
| Jared Verse | 7.5 | 27 | 7 |
| Kobie Turner | 7.0 | 14 | 7 |
| Josaiah Stewart | 3.0 | 6 | 4 |
| Braden Fiske | 3.0 | 10 | 3 |
The Rams have spent significant draft capital on edge rushers since 2022 — Fiske (2nd round), Verse (1st), Stewart (3rd), Turner (3rd), Young (3rd) — and the reward in 2025 is the highest-pressure front in the NFC West.
Young and Verse have combined for 19.5 sacks and 56 QB hits — both top-30 individual marks in the NFL. The story everyone expected entering 2025 was Verse-as-star and Young-as-complement. The data flipped it: Young leads in sacks, hits, and TFLs. Verse is having a sophomore slump on the finish side, even though his pressure totals (27 QB hits) are nearly identical.
3 different career 2-sack games — all of them came in 2023 or 2025, none in 2024.
SplitYoung's career multi-sack outings
| Year | Wk | Opp | Sacks | QB Hits | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 9 | vs GB | 2.0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2 | vs TEN | 2.0 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 6 | vs BAL | 2.0 | 5 | 0 |
Young has three career multi-sack games — all of them with a forced-fumble plate appearance attached, two of them in 2025 within a 4-week window.
The Week 6, 2025 game vs Baltimore is the standout: 2 sacks plus 5 QB hits — by far the most pressures he's ever produced in a single game. The Lamar Jackson factor is real (scrambling QBs are kryptonite for many edges) but Young clearly thrived in it.
QB hits doubled in 2025 — but TFL and FF held steady. The improvement is pure pass-rush, not all-around.
AnomalyPer-game rate by season
| Metric | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sacks/G | 0.47 | 0.44 | 0.71 |
| QB Hits/G | 1.12 | 0.76 | 1.71 |
| TFL/G | 0.47 | 0.71 | 0.71 |
| FF/G | 0.12 | 0.06 | 0.06 |
The 2025 breakout is almost entirely a pass-rush story: sacks/G up from 0.44 to 0.71, QB hits/G up from 0.76 to 1.71 (a 2.25x jump). But TFLs and forced fumbles are flat — he's not creating more runs-stopped or strip-sacks than before.
That's the cleanest possible read: he didn't add a new skill, he just unlocked the one he was already good at. The Rams' 2024 scheme had him playing more contain on the strong side; in 2025 they've turned him loose as a designated rusher, and the dimension where his game lives (winning around the corner) has produced almost exactly the expected gains.
9 of his 17 games in 2025 had at least one sack — a 53% rate, top tier among edges.
RareGames with ≥1 sack by season
| Year | G played | G with sack | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 17 | 6 | 35% |
| 2024 | 17 | 7 | 41% |
| 2025 | 17 | 9 | 53% |
In 2025 Young recorded at least one sack in 9 of 17 games — a 53% rate. By comparison, league-average for an established starter is around 35-40%; T.J. Watt's career-best season (2021) was 64% (9 of 14); Myles Garrett's 23-sack 2025 hit 70%.
The trajectory across his career — 35% → 41% → 53% — is the cleanest possible 'getting better every year' line. If 2026 holds the rate, the contract conversation will be about whether he's a sub-Pro-Bowl performer or a legit All-Pro.
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