UAlbany defensive coordinator Bill Nesselt described Jared Verse as a "goofy, gawky-looking kid" when he arrived on campus as a redshirt freshman in 2019. He was skinny for a defensive end, sporting an afro, glasses and a bit of a speech impediment, but none of that deterred him from talking trash.

Nesselt, the defensive line coach at the time, would be on the opposite side of the field coaching the first-team defense when he'd hear an unmistakable voice. It was Verse, heckling starting offensive linemen: "you can't block me," he'd say, or else telling them what move he was going to do before proclaiming, "I'm telling you and you still can't block it."

There were more times than Nesselt could count where the team's offensive line coach would come running to ask him to calm Verse down. His answer was always the same.

"No, that's what he is," Nesselt recalled. "That's how we coach our defense linemen at Albany. I'm not gonna tell him to stop."

And he never did.

Verse's relentless trash talk is fueled by a desire to prove and motivate himself. As a zero-star recruit out of high school with only one Division I offer, Verse was counted out his entire life. Now, he's the reigning NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, and that vehemently competitive spirit drives him and his teammates to be great.

"He had something to prove, maybe not to everybody else, but to himself," Nesselt said, "that he could get to where he wanted to be and he was going to do it through hard work and dedication and just being himself.

"The issue some guys run into is when they're not getting what they want, they try to be something besides themselves, and all you gotta do is be true to who you are and your upbringing and all the values that have been instilled in you growing up."

In high school, Verse was a tight end. He only started one game at defensive end, but the Great Danes' coaching staff saw potential in his physical skills and mental fortitude.

In 2022, Verse told 247Sports that he was "​​calm" and "humble" when he started playing football in high school. Once he got to UAlbany, he'd turned up the vigor because it made competition more fun. It got him and his teammates hyped up to improve and go into battle.

Verse was on the smaller side as a redshirt, listed at 221 pounds. The next year, he weighed in at 250 pounds after transforming his body during the pandemic. When Verse returned to campus, Nesselt's phone started blowing up with repetitive texts: "Have you seen Jared yet?"

When he did lay eyes on Verse, having grown an inch and added nearly 30 pounds of muscle, Nesslet's reaction was "oh crap."

On Verse's first-ever pass rush for UAlbany, he drove a 6-6, 330-pound offensive tackle straight backwards and ran off the field with a maniacal grin on his face. Nesselt said that felt like reassurance for Verse that he could not only play, but excel in the FCS.

Verse racked up 22 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and four sacks in four games in spring of 2021, but that season was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He had officially arrived and his intensity was off the charts, but that emotion boiling over on game days wasn't always advantageous.

"The Hulk keeps coming out," UAlbany head coach Greg Gattuso told The Times Union in July of 2021. "I told him to watch 'The Avengers' and that nice Hulk, you know, the one that's intelligent (in 'Endgame') and he's the Hulk still, but he's groomed and he wears clothes and he's dressed nice.

"I keep telling him that's who we want, the good Hulk, the nice Hulk, the smart Hulk. He's working on it because he gets mad. He gets into personal, physical battles sometimes that hurt him, and I told him pretty soon, people are going to take advantage of you by getting you out of your game."

Verse told The Times Union that he didn't talk trash during games in his first season, but did so emphatically during practice. Still, he was well-liked and respected in the locker room because "he was always the first person to pick guys up when they messed up," Nesselt said.

That's how everyone knew Verse's taunts were out of a desire for collective improvement, not just personal satisfaction.

In Year 2 at UAlbany, he evolved more into "nice Hulk," as he learned the nuances of the position and controlled his emotions. In 11 games, Verse tallied 52 tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks. Still, he saved his trash talk for practice mostly, so his emotions wouldn't get the better of him.

After that season, Verse was highly sought in the transfer portal in 2023 and chose Florida State. He picked up right where he left off, proving that he belonged at a level people had doubted he would. That's when he became more vocal toward opponents.

Verse's first primetime game against a stacked LSU team put him on the stage he had always wanted, said Florida State defensive ends coach John Papuchis. He jawed back-and-forth with two high-end LSU tackles in the 2025 NFL Draft class, Will Campbell and Emery Jones Jr. Verse went on to sack fellow 2024 NFL Rookie of the Year Jayden Daniels twice and blocked a field goal in a statement win for the Seminoles.

"He's the best player out there on the field right now,'" Papuchis remembered thinking, "and there were a lot of good players on the field that day, including Jayden Daniels and the whole host of guys they had drafted on the offensive side."

Later that year against Oklahoma in the Cheez-It Bowl, Verse faced off against another NFL-bound tackle, Tyler Guyton. He'd contained Verse for most of the game and let him know it, but with FUS up three points in the final seconds, Verse got the last laugh… literally.

"(Guyton) looked at me and said 'you're not going to do nothing in the league, you're not going to make it to the league,'" Verse recalled after the game. "I told him 'watch this next play.' I got the sack, we see the clock, three seconds left, time running out. I started laughing at him."

As we now know, Verse not only made the NFL, but became an instant-impact player for the Rams, just as he had for both his college teams. That relentless trash talk has been a motivating factor throughout it all, but the extent of it increased throughout the years, and coaches and teammates have embraced it at every level.

"I think his talking is kind of part of when he's out there having fun," Papuchis said, "and most players play at their best when they're enjoying what they're doing, and that's just him.

"I think at the end of it, he was the same every day. I think that was his edge, that was who he was, so as his teammates started to get to know him, I think they accepted it for being his authentic self and he wasn't trying to be something that he wasn't or trying to create problems but that's who he was and they respected him and embraced him."

As a rookie with the Rams, Verse elevated his trash talk yet again. Defensive coordinator Chris Shula said it started immediately and never stopped. Even in meeting rooms, Shula said Verse banged on the walls and his voice rang throughout the facility. It certainly did in the locker room, as he constantly poked and prodded at teammates in a playful yet provocative way.

That's something L.A. knew about and encouraged after drafting Verse, as long as he could turn it into "controlled aggression" on the field, Shula said. That didn't take long to translate.

"One of the things I love about (Verse) is that he comes from a great family, he's incredibly respectful, but he has an edge to him that is so healthy," said head coach Sean McVay. "I think it's one of the special things that makes him who he is. You see that in his play energy. His personality comes out on his tape and that's what we loved about him."

Five games into his NFL career, Verse gained the confidence to chirp at seasoned NFL veterans the same way he had the starting offensive line at UAlbany as a redshirt freshman. Nesselt, who is still close with Verse, said he's now a more evolved version of the person he always was, and this all but proves it.

Defensive end Kobie Turner told ESPN’s Sarah Barshop that Verse berated a Raiders offensive tackle in Week 7. Just as he'd done five years prior, Verse told his adversary what he was going to do, and that he couldn't do anything to stop it. Verse was right.

"He is like, 'I'm about to power you. I'm literally about to run you back into the quarterback and get a pressure or a sack, I'm about to go power,'" Turner recalled. "And he comes out of his stance and does exactly that and gets a pressure."

Verse forced an errant throw in the red zone, helping the Rams' defense get off the field.

A week later, on his viral "Mic'd Up" video from the Rams' Week 8 win over Minnesota, Verse went back to the old reliable, "you can't block me," among other jeers. He went on to have 1.5 sacks and three quarterback hits, once again proving that he belongs.

"Verse loves to talk. He's really good at talking. It motivates him, but that's really not who he is," said defensive line coach Giff Smith. "He's a humble kid to deal with. He cares about his teammates. He knows how to market himself, and he knows what keeps him motivated in a game… But he doesn't take it to the point where he puts himself above the team, and I just want to make sure people understand he's a great kid that cares about his teammates that just talks a lot of s* on the field."