Jared Verse never signed up to be Myles Garrett’s successor with the Cleveland Browns, but it’s a situation he’s been forced to embrace as Cleveland’s No. 1 defensive end on the right side.
Garrett’s success in Cleveland was measured by sack totals, individual records, and top awards like NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Verse has no interest in being that guy, and he tried to distance himself yet again during Wednesday’s media availability.
"I don't care about sacks,” said Verse, who has yet to record his first sack as a Brown. “At the end of the season, yeah, you can tally up how good someone 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.
“I try to be the best version of me that elevates my teammates around me. You know, if my teammates are getting sacks, they’re producing, and I’m causing pressure to make the quarterback throw a pick or do this, do that — if it’s just elevating our defense that’s all that matters to me. A sack is one play out of 60 that you get a game, what are you doing the other 59 plays?”
The rebuttal from impatient Browns fans right now would be: “Tell us, Jared, what are you doing?”
No one was expecting Verse to produce gaudy stat totals like Garrett, who set the NFL’s single-season record in 2025. Verse is now 36 games into his young career and has 12 total sacks to his credit. Garrett had 13 sacks during a span of four games last season.
But through two games with the Browns, Verse hasn’t been the kind of impact player fans expected — or that he described to reporters on Wednesday. Per the analytics site SumerSports, Verse has a career-low 4.3 pressure percentage so far this season. He’s also been average at best against the rush with two stuffs, per Pro Football Focus.
Jared Verse already looks different under the pressure of being the Browns' top pass rusher
The biggest takeaway from Verse’s presser on Wednesday wasn’t what he said, but how he looked.
He nearly walked off the podium after he was asked about his sack total. Verse answered the question, began to leave, and stopped as a reporter tossed out a question about Carolina Panthers rookie Monroe Freeling.
Verse then stuck around for several more questions after that, including a follow-up on the sack conversation.
"I think [sacks] are very important in the fact that they can mess up an offense's head,” Verse said. “They can push people back, and obviously I want as many sacks as possible. Every defensive lineman does. But I think there's a lot more things that contribute to the factor of if you're a good defensive lineman or if you're a top-tier player or not besides the fact of you putting up a high sack number."
One thing’s for certain about Verse — he’s all ball and no nonsense. It’s why he immediately felt like the perfect fit for head coach Todd Monken and the culture he’s trying to build.
But Verse definitely didn’t look as chipper as he was back when he first arrived in Berea in early June. He had his game face on at the podium Wednesday, and it’s easy to speculate that his inability to make a singular impact on the quarterback through two weeks is weighing on him.
Jared Verse wants Browns fans to judge his impact by more than sacks
In a nutshell, Verse’s message ahead of Week 3 is that stats don’t tell the whole story. We tend to agree with that, but Verse downplaying sack totals and talking up a defensive end’s ability to set the edge and compete in the run game shows just how new this Browns era of football really is.
Garrett could do it all on the field, as he led the NFL in tackles for loss as well in 2025. But the Browns often left themselves a bit susceptible to the run when offenses could catch Garrett rushing up the field. Cleveland ranked 17th against the rush in 2025 and 21st in 2024.
“So many people focus too much on the ability to get to the quarterback and to get these sacks, hits, quarterback pressures, and all that,” Verse said. “I think the ability to stop the run is a very underrated characteristic of a lot of defensive linemen.”
Verse ranked among the NFL’s top edge defenders against the rush last season, per ESPN’s run stop win rate. He’s since dropped out of the league’s top 10, though, two games into 2026.
It’s still early. Verse is entering his third game in a new system, and he’s a 25-year-old player who’s still building a full repertoire as a pass rusher. Going head-to-head with three-time All-Pro Tristan Wirfs, as Verse did in Week 2 at Tampa Bay, was hardly a favorable matchup.
But Verse needs to be better, and his demeanor at the podium on Wednesday showed that he knows it. He might not care about sacks in the grand scheme of things, but getting that first one on the board in Sunday’s home opener in front of the Dawg Pound would make everyone feel a lot better — Verse especially.
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