Seahawks show interest in 1st round edge rusher

Is Jared Verse a Seahawk? Seaside Joe 1865

Either it is a smokescreen to a fault or the Seattle Seahawks don’t care if you know that they’re going to draft a defensive player with their first pick. As previously noted in the pre-draft visits tracker, the Seahawks have only met with quarterbacks and defensive players among the expected first round prospects. More specifically, the Seahawks have exclusively met with defensive linemen: First we knew about edge Dallas Turner and defensive tackles Johnny Newton, Byron Murphy, but now we can add Jared Verse to that list.

NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported on Tuesday that the Seattle Seahawks have a two-day stretch with the Florida State edge rusher this week.

Normally I do not cover every single pre-draft visit or meeting or group text thread that the Seahawks have with a prospect—I did it with quarterback John Rhys Plumlee because he’s such a unique player and could be had late or even after the draft—but I wanted to highlight Verse for a few reasons.

Number one, Verse is a first round prospect and arguably the top defensive end/edge rusher in the class. Most agree it is either him, Turner, or Laiatu Latu. The Seahawks brought Devon Witherspoon to the VMAC before the 2023 draft, so a meeting is not nothing.

Two, this emphasizes what I wrote about Seattle choosing a defensive player. The highest-ranked offensive lineman who the Seahawks have been connected to is Duke’s Graham Barton and though he could be a trade down possibility he could also be a trade up possibility from the third round. Verse, Turner, Newton, and Murphy almost certainly are picks to be made at 16. My case for it being less likely that Seattle would trade down this year is heavily predicated on the Seahawks falling in love with a prospect like Verse or Murphy, for example.

Three, Verse is a potential difference maker at the outside linebacker position. The 23-year-old who transferred from Albany to Florida state in 2022 has been one of the most productive players in college football and I do believe that the Seahawks are targeting great college football players, not just great athletes. When you have a combination of the two like Witherspoon and Jaxon Smith-Njigba were in 2023, or Kenneth Walker III in 2022, that’s going to pique my interest even more. Verse, Turner, Murphy, and Newton all fit the bill.

Verse is 6’4, 254 lbs, 33.5” arms and ran a 4.58 in the 40-yard dash, 1.60 in the 10-yard split, 35” vertical, and 4.44 in the 20-yard short shuttle. This amounted to ranking eighth in Athleticism Score for edge rushers. Per PFF, Verse is near 95th percentile in 40-yard dash and broad jump, and over 80th percentile in vertical and bench press. He falls behind in weight, arm length, and hand size. In their draft guide, they also had Verse top-12 in the nation in hurries, hits, pass rush wins, and sacks.

This is what PFF had to say:

Verse is a devastatingly powerful edge player who brings the gym to the field on all three downs. After his 2020 season at Albany was canceled due to COVID-19, Verse and his father built a home gym and he put on 40 pounds in one year. He came back and was an FCS All-American. He transferred to Florida State the following season and displayed overwhelming strength against LSU in just his second game in the FBS. His speed-to-power is consistently effective. His hands are powerful and violent, and his swipes look like they hurt. His best work comes from the power he generates as a three-point defensive end.

With Verse, the Seahawks could be getting an edge rusher who gives the team flexibility if they need to part ways with Uchenna Nwosu for cap savings in 2025: As I wrote in the ‘prove it seasons’ article, Nwosu isn’t just coming off of a season-ending pec injury, he had not been that productive for half of his Seattle career prior to that. If Nwosu isn’t the Seahawks best edge defender in 2024, the team has to consider the $14.5 million in cash savings and $8.5 million in cap savings that would come with releasing him. That’s important because the Seahawks are already out of money next year and will need to make tough decisions to get compliant.

A player like Verse or Turner would certainly set the stage for Mike Macdonald and Aden Durde to decide who the best three or four edge rushers/defensive ends/outside linebackers will be for the team in 2025: Would it be one of them, Boye Mafe, and Derick Hall? If Nwosu is there too, all the better. But adding a veteran edge rusher in free agency or trade is one of the costliest and most difficult things to do: It cost the Giants a second and a fifth round pick plus a $141 million contract to get Brian Burns from the Panthers.

Verse could be in that same class as Burns within a couple of years.

Four (yes we’re back to the numbers), Verse has the chip-on-his-shoulder mentality that John Schneider tends to look for in first round picks. It’s not easy to get highly-ranked athletes from power five programs who were heavily doubted, but that was the case for Witherspoon going to Illinois, for Walker going to Wake Forest prior to transferring to Michigan State, and for Verse, who only had one college offer and it was from Albany.

When I picked Witherspoon as the choice for the Seahawks in 2023, it was because he felt like the safest pick who was expected to go in that range of the first round. “Why should I choose Jalen Carter when Witherspoon has no question marks?” “Why should I choose Tyree Wilson when Witherspoon did combine drills and blew everyone away?”

I’m not ready to say that Jared Verse is that guy, but he certainly could be that guy.

Does he have the size and athleticism to go in the top-16? Yes. Did he prove it in college and against the best competition? Yes. Does he have a chip on his shoulder and give 100% effort to consistently be better? It seems so.

That being said, I don’t know for sure that Dallas Turner or Laiatu Latu couldn’t check those boxes or that Byron Murphy and Johnny Newton couldn’t too. Or that the Seahawks wouldn’t trade down and pick Peyton Turner or Jackson Powers-Johnson. This draft is much harder to predict than last year and not even trying to guess the top-15 picks is helping as much as I’d hope.

However, there is still over two weeks to go until the first round and picking a defensive player continues to be the most likely route in my eyes. And if the Seahawks are on the clock at 16, really like Verse, and he hasn’t been selected, there’s little chance that they would trade down because he may not get past the Rams at 19. If these defensive players are on the board at 16 and the Seahawks trade down, it would tell me that they weren’t blown away by any of these meetings.

All we can confirm is that meetings happen, not how they went. This particular visit is still telling as to what Seattle believes that they need and who they think could be worth a first round pick.

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