Los Angeles Rams stars Jared Verse and Byron Young are open to a future in acting.

Brevin Townsell/Los Angeles Rams

The Los Angeles Rams are this close to getting over the hump.

The Rams of today look vastly different from the 2021 squad that won the Super Bowl in Matthew Stafford’s first season with the franchise. There are a coupe holdovers from that team such as Stafford and head coach Sean McVay, but just about everyone else is new.

That includes most of their star players, including young Pro Bowlers such as Jared Verse and Byron Young. Verse is coming off of his second Pro Bowl bid while Young is coming off of his first ever after a breakthrough season that saw him notch a career high 82 tackles to go along with a team-leading 12 sacks.

The two young building blocks – Verse is 25 years old, while Young is 28 – form the nucleus of the Rams’ front seven, which includes standouts such as Braden Fiske and Kobie Turner. The Rams ranked 10th in scoring defense this past season.

While the Rams have inched closer and closer to their ultimate goal of winning a Super Bowl over the past few seasons, they came up a bit short in their NFC Championship Game loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

When asked what it’ll take for the Rams to get over the hump, Verse said it’s the matter of not “beating themselves.”

“We keep beating ourselves,” said Verse in a one-on-one interview. “When you stop beating yourself up, you win – it’s easy to win. We have all the players we need. We got great DB’s, we got great linebackers, our defensive line is the best. We got amazing outside linebackers.

“We got the best of the best,” Verse continued. “The only thing that can stop us is ourselves. After the season I told everybody once we got back, I said, ‘We gotta stop beating ourselves.’”

The Rams lost in the wild card round at the end of the 2023 season, the divisional round during the 2024 season and the conference championship game this past season. In all of those games, they lost by one possession and a combined total of 11 points.

Young – who’s been a member of the Rams for each of those games – said the key is to “finishing” out opponents.

“I feel like our biggest thing is we didn’t finish,” said Young. “We were close in several games in particular last year. I feel like we gotta to finish any opponent out. I think that's the key to getting to the Super Bowl is just finishing. I think we always start out pretty good most times. Or if we do, we don't start off good, we'll start off slow. Regardless, I think we need to start off faster so we can get an advantage in finishing.”

The Rams happen to play in arguably the toughest division in all of football in the NFC West. The division champs, the Seattle Seahawks, beat the Rams in the NFC Championship Game before winning the Super Bowl. The San Francisco 49ers also went 12-5 and advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs before they were blown out by the Seahawks, 41-6.

Young said the reason the Rams lost to the Seahawks in the playoffs was a lack of “execution.” It’s worth noting that Los Angeles defeated Seattle in Week 11 when they forced Sam Darnold to throw four interceptions. They also narrowly lost in Week 16 by one point to the Seahawks in overtime.

“They have a good offensive team,” said Young of the Seahawks. “They have a great defensive line. I think they got great players. But like I said before, it was nothing that we didn’t expect, or they didn’t throw anything at us like a left hook or anything like that. It was just things that we beat ourselves. We didn’t do this, we didn’t do that, a drop here, and a missed tackle there. It was just lack of execution on our part.”

The Seahawks – along with the Niners – will likely be in the way when it comes to a potential Super Bowl berth for the Rams. Young said the key to beating the Seahawks is by not giving them a “chance.”

“That’s a complete team,” said Young of the Seahawks. “That’s a team where you can’t give them a chance, you can’t give them much type of a chance because they’re a certain team that will beat you with your mistakes -- so you can’t make mistakes like that. Beating a team like that is eliminate the mistakes and capitalize off their mistakes. That's the key to beating team likes that. They score, they're going to make great plays because they're a good team. They got great players, they're hungry and you know they're trying to continue that repeat.”

Jared Verse and Byron Young Talk About Acting in Friday Homage Titled Thursday

Verse and Young have kept busy during the offseason, recently filming a homage to the movie Friday, the 1995 classic starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker. Along with teammate Kevin Dotson, former Rams player and current actor Terry Crews and Los Angeles-based rapper YG, the defensive duo made their acting debuts in the three-and-a-half minute video titled Thursday leading into the 2026 NFL Draft.

Cube and Tuckers’ sons, O’Shea Jackson Jr., and Destin Tucker, appear in the video, filling in the roles of their fathers. The video was shot in West Athens, Los Angeles – southeast of Inglewood and SoFi Stadium – and sees the characters countdown to the 2026 NFL Draft.

“Everybody was great vibes, it was a great time,” said Verse. “Terry Crews was an idol of mine as a kid. I loved Everybody Hates Chris, watched all his stuff while growing up. Being able to meet him, and then he’s flexing his pecs right in front of me and we had to redo it like five times, but we keep laughing. It was a great time.”

Verse detailed how they filmed the homage to the classic movie about a month before the draft and the Rams initially told him about the plans for it back in February.

He said he would love to continue acting and said he could play both serious and funny roles, comparing himself to well-known actor Kevin Hart.

“I feel like I’m a Kevin Hart," said Verse. "I could be in a serious thing. I could be in a laughing, jokey thing. I feel like I’m a jack of all trades, master of all.”

Young said he sees himself as more of a “serious” actor and would love to continue acting.

“Like serious, like I was doing it in Thursday and kind of have a serious approach,” said Young. “Anything like action, I can definitely see myself in doing those type of movies, some comedian movies. Anything around that area, but definitely see myself doing more serious roles.”

Lexi Vonderlieth, Senior Vice President of the Los Angeles Rams brand, detailed that they picked Verse, Young and Dotson because they each brought a “distinct” personality to the set.

“Byron, Jared, and Kevin each bring a distinct personality and presence - and I will say they all could have a future on the big screen,” said Vonderlieth. “Jared and Byron are two of the cornerstones of our fearsome D Line so it was a natural fit for them to be Terry’s reinforcements. And when we envisioned who could properly pay homage to Big Worm, we knew it had to be Big Dot, with his big personality and great timing.”

Young said the best advice Crews gave him was to be a “natural” while acting.

“He just said act naturally,” said Young of Crews. “This something that he loved doing. He told me he wanted to be a director and acting kind of just came along. He just always said, ‘Just be natural and be happy.’ I just ran with it.”

Vonderlieth said the concept of Thursday came up in conversations in 2022 before resurfacing in 2024. She said they’ve collaborated with Cube’s son, Jackson Jr., multiple times over the years.

“Our idea for Thursday actually dates back a few years, but it was always about finding the right moment—one where it would feel authentic and connected to something bigger. This year, that aligned with the launch of our updated uniforms and refreshed logos, making Draft week the ideal stage. Draft has always been a tone-setting moment for our brand, and we always challenge ourselves to show up in a way that feels distinctly Los Angeles and unmistakably Rams.”

The Rams held a big party during the three days of the NFL draft at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, the 300-acre mixed use development anchored by SoFi Stadium. It included the Zillow draft house, which acted as a fan-facing pop-up experience along with other draft day activities.

“It was amazing, it was beautiful,” said Verse. “Everybody had a great time, kids were out there going to the bounce house, playing all the games. Everybody was able to have a good time.”