Jared Verse’s excuse to why he hasn’t been productive with Browns is now just a bad look
Cleveland Browns EDGE Jared Verse’s latest comments have brought plenty of conversation around the player he is this season.
The Cleveland Browns’ trade that sent Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams came with plenty of draft ammunition. It also brought back pass rusher Jared Verse, who Cleveland hoped could become a star for its defense. Eight games into the 2026 NFL season, the early returns on Verse as a long-term piece for the Browns are not good.
Of course, it’s still early on in Verse’s tenure with the Browns. But let’s not call his acclimation to Cleveland to this point anything but what it has been … bad.
The Browns fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers and dropped to 5-3. With five wins in the first eight games, you would think Verse has been a big part of Cleveland’s defensive success. That just hasn’t happened yet.
Jared Verse’s production has dipped with the Browns
According to Pro Football Focus, Verse has just 13 pressures. In five of his eight games, he has recorded one pressure or none at all.
That’s a steep drop for a player who recorded seven sacks in each of the last two seasons. Verse has yet to record his first sack with the Browns. It’s been a disappointment, to say the least. Still, Cleveland is top 10 in the NFL in sacks and has found a way to get after the quarterback without much help from him.
Verse was asked about the disappointment so far this season.
“I think I’ve not done myself a service of playing the way I wanted to play,” he said. “I think it’s been a lot of attention that’s been focused on me not doing enough on this aspect, that aspect. I don’t think we’ve been getting enough third-and-longs for me to put myself in position to get the stats and stuff like that. But I think stats can be rather confusing for a lot of people.”
The numbers don’t back up the Browns pass rusher’s explanation
Pointing to a lack of third-and-long situations sounds reasonable on the surface. The problem is that it isn’t true.
The Browns’ opponents have needed an average of 8.7 yards to convert. That is plenty of room for a pass rusher to pin his ears back and go get a sack. The mark ranks fourth-longest in the NFL, a number first brought to attention by ESPN’s Daniel Oyefusi.
The opportunities have been there for Verse, and the production hasn’t followed.
Verse came up quiet in the loss to Pittsburgh
Verse is coming off a frustrating game against the Steelers. Cleveland lost, and Verse wasn’t a factor. He finished with just one pressure on Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Verse did quite a bit of talking going into that game. Once it was over, Steelers players made sure to let him hear about it on social media. They took exception to what he had to say, and his one-pressure afternoon gave them plenty of ammunition.
To be fair, Verse is only eight games into his Browns tenure, and he is learning a new system. He is playing from a wider alignment in Cleveland, and that type of change can take some time for a pass rusher to adjust to. Even so, you would have expected him to make some kind of impact by now. That hasn’t happened.
The Browns gave up a franchise cornerstone in Garrett, and Verse was a major part of the return. The second half of the season is going to be key for him. Until Verse starts making an impact, it’s hard to see him as a long-term piece in a Browns uniform based on what he has shown so far.
