The Cleveland Browns swapped Myles Garrett, the NFL’s all-time single-season sack leader in 2025, for Jared Verse and a handful of draft picks via a trade this offseason. Through two games, Verse has failed to create a single sack in Garrett’s place, but the former Defensive Rookie of the Year isn’t sweating that.
Verse spoke to reporters on Thursday, September 24 and addressed the fact that he doesn’t yet have a sack this season.
“I don’t care about sacks. … That’s never been a testament to the way I play. I try to be the best version of me that elevates my teammates around me,” Verse said, per Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN. “A sack is one play out of 60 that you get a game. What are you doing the other 59 plays?”
Jared Verse Has Not Been Big Sack Producer During NFL Career
To Verse’s credit, he was a two-time Pro Bowler across his first two professional seasons in 2024 and 2025 despite never being a huge generator of sacks.
He had 4.5 sacks and 11 tackles for loss during his rookie campaign with the Los Angeles Rams, then followed that up with 7.5 sacks and 11 tackles for loss last year.
Verse has just two tackles for loss and one QB hit this year. But Verse’s style of play and how it translates into results on the field is a bit different than the typical top defensive ends and outside linebackers across the NFL.
He is good against the run and at generating QB pressures, though he does so in a specific sort of way more frequently than any other fashion.
Verse is quite adept at driving offensive linemen back into their quarterbacks and collapsing the pocket in that way, but he’s not like Garrett with an ability to quickly and entirely evade a blocker and get his hands cleanly on the QB.
Verse finished the 2025 campaign with 80 QB pressures, ranking him sixth in the league. His 52 QB hurries last year were also sixth-best in the league, while his 20 QB hits slotted him second in that statistical category.
Jared Verse Affords Browns Youth, Contract Value Compared to Myles Garrett
These stylistic differences mean that Browns fans will probably never see from Verse anything like the record 23 sacks that Garrett produced last season. One thing they will experience, though, is a player who is a natural leader and can inspire the locker room to coalesce around him.
“While Garrett was respected and revered by his teammates, he wasn’t necessarily universally loved,” Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com wrote in June. “And while he evolved as a leader over the years, he wasn’t the great unifier the Browns always hoped he’d be, often keeping to his tight inner circle away from team headquarters.
“Early indications are that Verse, who came to town with a wide smile, a big heart and open arms, will be more of a force multiplier and unifier than Garrett, who’s not as gregarious as Verse,” she continued.
Another value Verse provides Cleveland is his age. He turns 26 years old in December and still has two years remaining on his rookie contract, plus a fifth-year team option for 2028. Garrett, meanwhile, turns 31 in December and is on a $200-plus million deal that runs for another five years.
Browns Jared Verse Goes Off on Lack of Sacks After Replacing Myles Garrett