Jared Verse

Career arc: 2-year leap from rookie-disruptor to top-line finisher — sacks nearly doubled, QB hits up 50%.

Maxx Crosby is the closest comparable to Verse — a raw pass rusher who arrived with high pressure volume and gradually turned it into production. Crosby's first two years showed stagnation in sacks: 10.0 sacks, then 7.0, with QB hits declining from 14 to 13.

Verse's first two years look like acceleration: 4.5 sacks, then 7.5, with QB hits jumping from 18 to 27 — a 50% single-season leap. Crosby didn't break 30 QB hits in a season until his third year (2021). Verse is already there.

Crosby's big sack seasons (11 in Year 4, 14 in Year 5) arrived after the pressure machine was fully built. Verse's machine is running two seasons ahead of that schedule.

He won DROY with the LOWEST sack total of any defensive ROY winner since 2018 — by leaning on disruption volume.

Every other DROY winner since 2018 had at least 7.0 rookie sacks. Verse won with 4.5 — less than half of Parsons' 13.0, and below Chase Young's 7.5. The DROY voters were rewarding the full disruption profile: his 18 rookie QB hits rank 4th among the 7 winners on this list (behind Parsons 30, Bosa 25, and Anderson 22), and his 11 TFLs showed run-game impact that most pure pass-rushers on this list couldn't match.

Year 2 validated the pick: 7.5 sacks and 27 QB hits in 2025 — the second-year production already exceeds what most of these DROY winners showed in their rookie years.

Compared to recent DPOY-track rookies, his rookie sack total was the lowest — but his rookie QB-hit total beats most of them.

Verse’s 4 rookie sacks are below every other 1st-round rookie defender on this list — including Myles Garrett (7) and Aidan Hutchinson (8). But his 18 QB hits as a rookie were more than Garrett (10) or Joey Bosa (12) had in their rookie years.

The profile is closer to the early-career Maxx Crosby than to early-career Parsons: heavy pressure volume, sack rate lagging. Crosby waited until Year 3 for his first 8-sack season; Verse is already there in Year 2.

45 QB hits in 2 NFL seasons — 3rd among all 1st-round EDGE/DL drafted since 2020, behind only Parsons and Hutchinson.

45 QB hits in 2 years ranks Verse 3rd among all first-round edge rushers drafted since 2020 — ahead of Jaelan Phillips (41), Will Anderson Jr. (41), and Kayvon Thibodeaux (29). Only Micah Parsons (57) and Aidan Hutchinson (48) are ahead of him.

The counterpoint to the high QB hits is the sack total: 12.0 sacks in 2 years trails Parsons (26.5) and Hutchinson (21.0) sharply. Verse sits 3rd in pressure but much further back in finishes — a gap that points squarely toward finish-rate improvement in Year 3 rather than a ceiling on his pass-rush ability.

For comparison: T.J. Watt had 34 QB hits and 20.0 sacks in his first two seasons (2017–2018), and 22 TFLs — the same TFL total as Verse. Watt went on to win four All-Pro selections and set the single-season sack record.

Why it matters. Verse sits third all-time in 2-year QB hits among post-2020 first-round EDGE rushers — a tier occupied only by two future All-Pros ahead of him; his sack deficit to that tier is the clearest projection for what Year 3+ looks like.

Through 2 seasons, his only 2-full-sack game is Week 12, 2025 — though he twice had 1.5 sacks (1 sack + shared half).

Through 34 regular-season games Verse has had two multi-sack events: Week 8 of 2024 (1 full sack + 1 shared half-sack = 1.5 sacks vs. Minnesota) and Week 12 of 2025 (2 full sacks vs. Tampa Bay). His only true 2-sack game is Week 12, 2025.

Both multi-sack outings also included exactly 3 QB hits — showing his pressure volume spikes in the same games where he finishes. The projection case for a multi-sack frequency increase rests on this: when the finish rate opens up, it does so in games where the pressure was already there at maximum volume.

His 2024 was the rare DROY season where the TFLs and QB hits both led the rookie class — but the sacks didn’t.

DROY voters almost always weight the sack column. In 2024 they didn't — Verse won despite Braden Fiske having 8.5 sacks (nearly double Verse's 4.5). What the voters rewarded instead: Verse's 18 QB hits were the class high by a margin of 4 (Chop Robinson was next at 14), and his 11 TFLs showed all-down disruptive presence that most pure pass-rushers in the class couldn't match.

Verse was the only player in the 2024 draft class who led all rookies in QB hits outright. He held his own in every other disruption category — his TFLs trailed only an off-ball linebacker (Cooper's 13 from a linebacker who specializes in run defense). Year 2's 7.5 sacks have since closed the gap that the 2024 critics pointed to.