Emerging Los Angeles Rams star Jared Verse appears to have learned his lesson after calling out one of the franchise's all-time greats earlier this week. The reigning NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year completed a workout with legendary defensive lineman Aaron Donald and took to social media to acknowledge his mistake, saying he "learned his lesson."
Jared Verse calls out Aaron Donald
This all stemmed from Verse's appearance on a podcast with ESPN's Adam Schefter. Schefter asked the 24-year-old about his relationship with Donald and was surprised the two hadn't worked out together.
"He's not ready for that," Verse responded confidently. "That little 500 bench he had, he's not ready for that. I be moving weight. Whenever he's ready for a workout ... he can get at me whenever he's ready."
It was a bold challenge from the young pass-rusher after amassing 4.5 sacks and 66 total tackles during his rookie season. But if you want to be the best, you need to compete against the best. Or at least work with them in some way.
Apparently, Donald thought the same and took it to heart, telling Verse that he wanted to "talk," "Play with a little weights," and "Do a little cardio. You know, the old man retirement workout," through a social media post.
Donald posted a video of part of the workout on his Instagram, teasing more to come.
It wasn't the first time Donald had helped Verse
During the interview, Verse added an interesting tidbit about the first time he met Donald. It had happened while he was working out during an offseason in college. Verse went over to introduce himself and ended up getting some pass-rushing advice that stuck with him to this day.
"He told me, 'You only need three moves,'" Verse said. "All you need is a power, a counter, and a speed move. You don't need 1,000 moves. Stick with the three and add some twists."
It worked well for Donald and seems to be working for Verse so far. He had 18 sacks in his final two seasons at Florida State and the fourth-most for LA last season.
He's now part of a young core group of defensive linemen trying to take the Rams defense back to an elite playing level in the trenches. The confidence in his game after his rookie season is a great sign of what could come, especially with Donald's mentorship.
However, the future Hall of Famer showed the youngster that he still has some work to do to become one of the greats.