Should Rams' Jared Verse be the Favorite for Top Award?

Pro Football Network's Jacob Infante created a list of the top candidates from each NFL team, that has the best chance to win Defensive Player of the Year, stating the Rams' defender with the best chance to win the award would be Verse.

"At first glance, Jared Verse might seem like a confusing Defensive Rookie of the Year pick last season," wrote Infante. "He only had 4.5 sacks for the Los Angeles Rams, but he led the NFL with 89 pressures."

"Verse was a consistent force in Year 1, earning Pro Bowl recognition in the process. If he can convert more of those pressures to sacks, Verse can be a dark horse DPOY candidate when it’s all said and done."

Verse didn't lead rookies in pressures; he led the entire NFL. Even more pressures than NFL sack leader Trey Hendrickson.

Verse spoke about his play at OTAs, citing that he should've turned those pressures into sacks and his approach towards making that a reality.

"The biggest thing I realized was how many sacks—and not even just sacks but big plays—that I missed out on. Dropping in coverage, I could have done this; or rushing the pass, I could have done that. Even in the run game, a couple of times there were things where I’m a little too far inside, I’m a little too far outside, and I could have made a big impact play. So realizing that this really is a game of inches—whether it’s stopping the ball or actually just doing your job—there’s a couple of things I could’ve done better."

"You’ve got to learn your ops [opportunities] before anything. You’ve got to learn [when] I can take a high rush here, or no, it’s just my job to eat the double team, or the chip’s coming my way. I’ve just got to learn to force that or try and get past that. So, you’ve got to learn your opportunities—that’s the number one thing. But then you also got to learn who you’re rushing with. Rushing with Kobie and rushing with Fiske—they’re both athletic rushers, but they rush very differently. Rushing with me and rushing with ‘BY’ [Byron Young] are two completely different things. So they have to learn the difference between us two. Now I have to learn the difference between them two. Now I’ve got to learn the difference between rushing with [RookieDE] Ty [Hamilton] and rushing with Fiske, and they have to learn the difference between rushing with [Rookie OLB] Josaiah [Stewart] and rushing with me."

In the biggest game of his life, with all of Philadelphia actively hating him, Verse manhandled Lane Johnson and Mekhi Becton.

Now with a full offseason to rest, develop, and focus solely on football, Verse is gunning for the award that Aaron Donald, a man he's grown a relationship with, won three times.