LOS ANGELES – Jared Verse spent his training camp off day the way many people across the country have been spending their time off since July 19:
Playing EA Sports College Football 25.
"I was just chilling, taking it easy off the legs," Verse said on the most recent edition of Inside Rams Camp. "I got on the game College Football, and it didn't go well. I was playing online, them boys was beating me. I was getting whooped, I'm not gonna lie. It was so bad, I had to quit. I'm not a quitter, I usually stay and take the whole whooping."
Rough video game experience aside, it's otherwise been a smooth first training camp for the rookie outside linebacker, who joined Inside Rams Camp after the team's first practice in pads.
"I'm not gonna lie, it feel like the first week," Verse said. "It flies when you're having fun. We're just having a good time out here. It's a lot of meetings and stuff like that, everybody knows how training camp goes, but it's just a good time."
He's going through the experience with friends familiar and new. His connection with college teammate and Rams defensive lineman Braden Fiske is well-documented, but Verse has also made fast friends with fellow outside linebacker Byron Young. At one point during Inside Rams Camp, Young off-stage was teasing Verse, getting the desired response out of him – this shortly after the two of them spending extra time working with one another after Monday's practice.
"It's kind of almost like a natural thing," Verse said. "We didn't know each other beforehand, we get here, I get to meet him the day after I got drafted, it was an instant connection, we started talking. Me and him talk about getting extra work in all the time, that's why every day after practice we get some work in. But we close now. Like, that's the person I'm around the most, the person I talk to the most, we talk about everything and just have a good time. We just got that connection, me, Byron, Hoecht, B-Jack."
Beyond the Rams, Verse has a personal connection with Browns defensive end Myles Garrett. He joked that he's made at Garrett because he owes him something after going 0-for-4 in four games of basketball against him – "that man is a hooper, he was beating me" – but still appreciates having a mentor like him.
"But it's good just to have that connection, whenever I have a question about this or that," Verse said. "When I finished up after the combine and came back, I was able to talk to him and pick his brain a little bit. That's a good connection, someone I want to reach out to more actually."
Verse's Rams teammates have nicknames like "The Conductor." So what will he be called when he gets his first career sack?
Early front-runner is "V8."
"One of our athletic trainers, Mark, he just called me V8 the other day," Verse said, referring to the type of engine. "Just because I get out, Verse, number eight, so it just kind of lined up perfectly. I think he saw it on Twitter or something."
