The Rams’ young pass rushers are showing up big, and it’s no small coincidence.
Edge rushers Jared Verse and Byron Young and linemen Braden Fiske and Kobie Turner traveled different paths to the NFL but have one thing in common. All started their college careers as overlooked prospects, and they attended small schools before transferring to Power Five programs and catching the attention of Rams scouts and general manager Les Snead.
“There’s a hunger and drive that comes from all of us, from at one point, being the underdog,” Fiske said. “It’s kind of cool and something we carry together.”
After future Hall of Fame lineman Aaron Donald retired last spring, the Rams’ pass rush was considered a question mark. But the young players have been disruptive, pressuring quarterbacks and amassing 27 sacks, tied for 12th in the NFL. Young has six sacks, Fiske and Turner five each. Verse has 4½.
The defensive line and the Rams (5-5) will get their biggest test of the season Sunday night when the Philadelphia Eagles (8-2) visit SoFi Stadium.
The Eagles have won six games in a row and feature quarterback Jalen Hurts, running back Saquon Barkley and receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. But the Eagles’ success on offense starts with their line. It no longer includes retired center Jason Kelce but still features two-time All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson, two-time Pro Bowl left guard Landon Dickerson, and one of the biggest and most athletic left tackles in the NFL in 6-foot-8, 365-pound Jordan Mailata.
“They’ve got a lot of vet players on the line that have played a lot of ball,” Verse said. “So we got a couple things that we’ve been working on this week to attack them in the right way.”
Verse attended Albany for two seasons before transferring to Florida State for his final two. The Rams drafted him with the 19th pick this year. Fiske, a second-round pick, was at Western Michigan for four years before transferring to Florida State for his final season.
Turner played four seasons at Richmond before finishing his career at Wake Forest. And Young played at Georgia Military College for one season before transferring to Tennessee. Both were third-round picks last year.
The roads were different, but their experiences proving themselves were similar.
“We always talk about it,” Verse said. “It just kind of gave all of us the same mentality. We all have in common like just the grind, like how much it took to get here.
“And obviously, like you can’t stop doing what got you here just because you’re here. You have to keep building up.”
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Snead’s road to an NFL job was not altogether different. He started his college career as an offensive lineman at Troy (Ala.) and finished as a tight end at Auburn before becoming a graduate assistant coach and then joining the Jacksonville Jaguars as a pro scout.
Does Snead see some of himself in the Rams pass rushers?
“No,” he said, chuckling, “because when I moved up a level in the video game, I went to a lot less playing time.”
Still, Snead and his scouting staff have an eye for players with histories of not fearing change.
“I would think there’s a net-positive version of intangibles there that says, ‘OK, I’m leaving the comfort of this ecosystem to go try and replicate and thrive in a different ecosystem that might be a little tougher than the one I’m at,’” Snead said.
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That experience serves them well as they transition to the pros.
“There’s going to be moments where it’s not going to go your way and you’re going to have to go to bed and toss and turn,” Snead said. “The more you have those toss-and-turn moments but come out on the other end stronger, the more you face them, it’s not, ‘Oh, this is adversity.’
“It’s more, ‘This is just another day.’”
Rams pass rushers are bonded because they share a mentality that “you have to constantly prove to yourself, day in and day out, that you’re worth your keep,” said Turner, a finalist last season for rookie defensive player of the year.
“That mentality is a muscle that you have to continuously work,” said Turner, 25, “and I think when you look at guys who have a story like that, they’re already used to that muscle working.
“So when you come in and you’re struggling, or not getting everything that you want or executing the way you want right away, you just keep working.”
As with Fiske, Young said the linemen share “a different kind of hunger” because they did not have immediate Power Five opportunities but still made their way to that level and proved they were draft prospects.
“We’re just used to like getting out of the mud,” Young said. “You don’t take nothin’ for granted. All of us have the same vision. All of us have the same look in our eye.”
They are not the only ones. Outside linebacker Michael Hoecht, the sage veteran of the group, started and finished at a Football Championship Subdivision school. The Brown graduate said he adopted “the broken leg model” philosophy when he decided to enroll and remain at the Ivy League school.
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“If I needed something other than football, I was going to fall back on a good degree,” Hoecht said. “I never had any thoughts of leaving, plus I loved it there.”
The younger linemen regard Hoecht, 27, as part of their group. And Hoecht, along with defensive line coach Giff Smith and assistant A.C. Carter and outside linebackers coach Joe Coniglio, has been instrumental in bringing them along.
Earlier this season, Verse said the Rams had one of the league’s best young defensive lines.
“Just take out the word young,” Verse added. “You could put us in the conversation as one of the best D-lines in the National Football League.”
And now, with the Eagles coming to town?
“It’s even more true than what I said before, because now we’ve seen how capable we are of getting back there any time we feel like it,” he said. “So I think it’s going to be a good matchup.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
