After Myles Garrett trade, Jared Verse confident joining Browns: 'I'm ready to see the look on everybody's face'
BEREA, Ohio — Jared Verse watches Myles Garrett's film.
But the Cleveland Browns edge rusher whom the Los Angeles Rams dealt as part of a trade for Garrett is not trying to pretend he's Garrett. Verse was not the 2017 first overall pick of the NFL Draft and he is not the reigning Defensive Player of the Year.
He's Jared Verse.
And he thinks that's going to make a difference in Cleveland.
"I've told a thousand people, I'm not here to replace Myles," Verse told Yahoo Sports in a Thursday sit-down interview. "That's not my job. It's not my description. When I signed any contract, that's not part of anything I signed.
"My job is to be the best me."
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Verse shares this party line with confidence and a sense of calm that bely how he felt on June 1, when the Rams told him that he was part of a blockbuster trade for Garrett. The Rams' haul: Garrett. The Browns': Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick and a 2029 third.
Verse was gutted. His body felt light as he heard the news.
"There's a few moments in your life that genuinely sculpt you into who you are as a person," Verse said. "And I genuinely don't want to overemphasize it. I mean, obviously I'm still alive today [and] it's not the end of the world."
But as Verse processed leaving his teammates, his community, his chance at imminent Super Bowl contention, he couldn't imagine his career elsewhere.
"Getting that news, in a way, it kind of broke me and made me really sad," Verse said of leaving the foundation he'd built. "It sucked. It was a terrible feeling. But right after they told me, I locked back in."
Versed asked Rams head coach Sean McVay if he could break the news to his teammates directly and amid OTAs, a team meeting was assembled.
In the two months since, Verse has built back up.
Through reading and journaling, lifting and attending a cross-league pass rush summit, Verse has dialed into the habits that most make him him. That extends to trash-talking at practice, a trademark habit that once triggered McVay interrupting practice to chastise a rookie Verse.
And that extends to going out of his way to help his teammates — most often helping the victims of his trash talk.
"If I beat you, you're going to know about it," Verse says. “And then you're going to receive advice.”
Take the ninth overall pick of the 2026 NFL Draft, offensive tackle Spencer Fano.
After Verse beat Fano on an up-and-under move in team work this week, Verse stayed after practice to explain to Fano he had set too far to Verse's outside shoulder.
Verse walked Fano through a half-speed drill, guiding him on how to use more inside leverage and athleticism against speedy rushers. After five or six reps, Verse says, Fano felt good.
"I'm like, 'Hey, man, you're a very athletic tackle,'" Verse recalled. "'When you go up against regular ends, you can do that move. But you got to face Trey Hendrickson this year. You got to face T.J. Watt … and Josh Hines-Allen first game.'
"These dudes are going to make you pay for it."
The Browns hope Verse will make opponents pay by the first week.
Verse on Browns: 'We're not here to rebuild and tank'
Since the Rams selected Verse 19th overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, Verse has collected 12 sacks, 71 tackles and five forced fumbles in two seasons. He won Defensive Rookie of the Year honors after his 2024 campaign.
His 69 pressures across the two years rank ninth among all players, five more than Houston Texans star Will Anderson Jr. and six more than the Las Vegas Raiders' Maxx Crosby.
But that ninth-ranked pressure ranking doesn't correlate with Verse's sack ranking: 42 players across the last two seasons have finished at the quarterback more than Verse. Chief among them is his predecessor Garrett, with 37 sacks to Verse's 12. Even if the Browns don't view Verse as the second coming of Garrett (there's a reason the Rams included so many picks in the trade compensation), Verse still is intensely motivated to convert the pressures into sacks.
No celebrating how pressures are steps in the right direction?
"A step's cool, but if you don't get to your destination, what's the point of even taking the step?" Verse said. "To create those sacks, that messes with the offensive line. That messes with an offensive coordinator. That makes them think, 'All right, we got to throw more at this guy.'"
The Browns' system could support Verse's sack aspirations more than that of the Rams. There's not one system that works best for NFL defenses nor NFL defensive fronts. But Verse is excited about playing in Cleveland's attack-style front that eliminates much of the read-and-react nature of the Rams' defense to instead emphasize decisive pursuits.
The Browns view Verse as a rusher who threatens with speed and strength, the latter Verse's self-described superpower. He wants to lean into the power as he's asked to rush nearly every, if not every, defensive snap of the Browns' season. But at the Von Miller Pass Rush Summit this summer, Verse also collected advice from players like Crosby, Miller, Hines-Allen and longtime Saints end Cam Jordan on how to elevate his game.
They encouraged him to integrate more counter moves, including capitalizing on the speed that powered his 4.58-second 40-yard dash two years ago.
Even without Garrett, the Browns' defense still has depth, from homegrown players like linebacker Carson Schwesinger and defensive tackle Mason Graham to defensive backs in Denzel Ward and Grant Delpit.
The defense hopes it can take pressure off a Browns offense with far more question marks, beginning with the glaring unanswered starting quarterback job as Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders battle it out.
"We're going to attack, reset the line of scrimmage, we're going to assault the pocket and we're going to try to take the ball away every snap," defensive line coach Jacques Cesaire told Yahoo Sports. "If that doesn't help an offense, I don't know what does."
And despite the betting line for the Browns' win total projecting at 5.5 games at sportsbooks, Verse isn't ready to lay down.
He sees talent in his teammates. He hopes his energy and his play will elevate them further.
"We're not here to rebuild and tank for the No. 1 pick of whoever's going to be up for quarterback or running back or wide receiver. We're not tanking for any of that," Verse said. "It's not like a rebuild year where we're trying to go out there and get three wins, four wins, nothing like that. We're here to win. I know a lot of people are like, 'Oh, it's the Browns. They got this, they got that. They lost Myles, who's a great player.'"
"I'm here now. Mason [Graham]'s a better player. We got Quincy Williams. We got all these dogs across the board. We got our DBs in the secondary getting paid. This is some dog work. I ain't going to lie. I'm excited to see what happens.
"When we exceed expectations and go farther than anybody expects us to, I'm ready to see the look on everybody's face."
