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LA traded up high to take Fiske, can he live up to the lofty expectations?
In the 2024 NFL Draft the Los Angeles Rams moved up in the second round and selected defensive lineman Braden Fiske with the 39th overall pick. Fiske has been playing football since at least high school. Before college he attended Michigan City High School and played both football and baseball. The three-star defensive tackle went on to play college football for Western Michigan for five seasons. He mostly redshirted his freshman year, but showed progress each season, and finally in his fifth year he started to put it all together as he recorded 59 tackers (12 for a loss). He was voted second-team All-MAC that same season.
“Everyone’s track’s a little different,” Fiske said on Wednesday. “It took me six years to get to this point. Some guys it takes three or four, but no matter what, the opportunity is gonna come, you just gotta wait for that wall to fall. If you keep pushing, it’s gonna fall at some point.”
After that 2022 season he transferred to the Power Five Level and Florida State University where he piled up the tackles again with 43 (nine for a loss) to become an AP All-American in 2023. He played a big part in helping his team win the ACC Championship with nine tackles and three sacks.
The now 24 year old enters NFL to begin his rookie season and start his NFL journey.
LA traded up with the Carolina Panthers to take Fiske, and some have questioned whether LA gave up too much to add the player. In looking at Fiske’s college stats he accumulated 19.5 sacks and 191 total tackles, Fiske is a highly drafted defensive tackle coming to a team that just saw one of the greatest defensive tackles of all time retire. Aaron Donald steps away and in comes Fiske and fellow newly drafted first round pick Jared Verse to try and make up for the huge loss.
Funnily enough, Fiske and Verse are reuniting in the NFL after playing together last season at Florida State University.
In one of the coolest draft moments you’ll ever see, Verse plays part in the introductory call to inform Fiske that he made it to the NFL level, and that he will be joining Verse as a new Ram.
Due to the fact that Fiske and Verse were teammates in college there is game tape on them. In fact, if you watch the video linked here: former player Beu Allen breaks down some of Fiske’s film and talent. Scroll to around the seven minute mark you’ll see Fiske and Verse playing off of each other. In one of the plays highlighted Fiske hits an offensive lineman, but breaks off, Verse then comes in and smashes the lineman to help Fiske get up field where he secures the tackle. It’s action like that which had to cause the Rams to want to pair these two at...
