When Aaron Donald announced his retirement, it was clear to the world that the Los Angeles Rams would need to address their defensive line in some capacity.
Armed with several high picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Rams were fortunate to have Jared Verse fall to their laps. But they then made an aggressive trade up in the second round to select Braden Fiske. Verse and Fiske were teammates at Florida State where they showed great chemistry, and Los Angeles made a bet that the duo could be effective at the pro level.
Fiske was considered a bit of a reach by some talent evaluators because he’s undersized and older, but there’s no questioning his motor and technique up front. As far as where he thought he would go in the draft, Fiske admitted he didn’t know it would be the Rams who came calling, via DJ Siddiqi of Forbes:
“I was definitely surprised,” said Fiske in an exclusive one-on-one interview. “Because I’ve talked about it many times in the pre-draft process, every team kind of plays their cards differently of how they show interest, the way that they recruit you, how they get to know you, how they kind of do their background checks on you. I didn’t really do anything with the Rams, hadn’t really heard much from them, hadn’t really talked to any of them at the All-Star games or the Combine.”
After getting taken by Los Angeles, Fiske expressed how grateful he was for the opportunity:
“When it did happen, it was a big surprise to me,” says a smiling Fiske. “I wasn’t expecting the Rams – because they didn’t have a selection until a few picks later – but they jumped up and got me and I couldn’t be in a better situation. Where I’m at now with this coaching staff, this is probably the best situation I could have been put in.”
Fiske won’t be asked to replace Donald’s production and for good reason because no player can do that. But the former is a great piece to build the defense around. With a high motor and a desire to be great, Fiske is the type of prospect that any team would be lucky to have on their roster.
Brande Fiske says being wanted by Rams makes him hungrier
The Rams jumped all the way to the top of the second round to take Braden Fiske and he said that being wanted by the team so much just makes him hungrier to prove himself.
