Inheriting the mantle from Myles Garrett, Jared Verse isn't worried about his own sack numbers as he enters Week 3 still looking for his first in a Cleveland Browns uniform.
Cleveland Browns fans have been spoiled in recent years having watched Myles Garrett wreak havoc off the edge for the last nine years. Before being traded this summer, Garrett's closing act in a Browns uniform was setting the single-season sack record with 23 of them in 2025.
The historic effort has perhaps inflated the perception of how important sacks really are when it comes to measuring a player. Just take it from Browns DE Jared Verse, who was the key piece of the team's trade that sent Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams. He's not sweating the fact that through his first two games with the franchise, he hasn't registered a sack yet.
"I don't care about sacks," Verse asserted on Thursday. "At the end of the season, yeah, you can tally up how good somebody played because of, 'oh, he had this many sacks, he had that many sacks.' That's never been a testament to the way I play."
For Verse, it's more about the overall impact he has on the field and his teammates.
"I try to be the best version of me that elevates my teammates around me," he added. "If my teammates are getting sacks and they're producing and I'm causing pressure to make this quarterback throw a pick or do this or do that, if it's just elevating our defense, that's all that matters to me. A sack is one play out of 60 you get a game. What are you doing the other 59 plays?"
In his first two seasons in LA, Verse registered 4.5 and 7.5 sacks, respectively, while making back-to-back Pro Bowls and winning the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award in 2024. The sacks certainly don't tell the story of how impactful Verse has been during the early stages of his career.
Since he entered the league, Verse is top four in pressures and top 20 in tackles for loss. He's also established himself as one of the better run-stopping defensive ends in football, posting a 78.4 run-defense grade as a rookie, according to PFF and a 62.0 grade this past season.
While Verse prides himself on leaving his mark in multiple ways, don't get it twisted; he still wants to get sacks.
"I think they are very important in the fact that they can mess up an offense's head," Verse explained. "They can push people back. Obviously, I want as many sacks as possible; every defensive lineman does."
He just also believes there's more to being a great pass rusher than strictly piling them up.
"I think there's a lot more things that can contribute to the fact that if you're a good defensive lineman or if you're a top tier player or not, besides just the fact that you're putting up a high sack total," he added.
Verse will look to snag his first sack of the 2026 campaign on Sunday when the Browns host the Carolina Panthers. In two matchups with the Panthers last season, Verse couldn't quite corral 2023 No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young.
Nobody should have ever expected Verse to replace Garrett in terms of talent or production. It's important to just let him be himself and the production will show itself, even if it doesn't come in the form of sacks.
