How Rams Braden Fiske proved to be more than Verse's sidekick in DROY voting

When the LA Rams stepped up to the podium in the 2024 NFL Draft with the 19th overall pick in Round 1 to name outside linebacker Jared Verse to the team, that was a safe selection. Many draft analysts projected Verse to hear his name called out among the Top-10 rookies in the draft. So Verse was far more of a bargain at 19 than risk.

But when the same Rams team traded up from the 52nd overall pick to the 39th overall pick in Round 2 of the 2024 NFL Draft, they took a risk. Actually, the team took on two risks. The first risk was naming Jared Verse's teammate, defensive tackle Braden Fiske, to the team. The second risk was paying two second-round and one fifth-round pick to trade up from the 52nd to the 39th overall pick in the first place.

The rest is history.

You can't judge a cake until it's done. And yet, the flood of disdain over the Rams daring to trade up in the 2024 NFL Draft was appalling to many NFL Draft analysts. But they lost sight of the meaning of NFL draft picks. Adding Fiske to a defense that already added Verse was the perfect one-two punch that NFL general managers dream about as they prepare to make their selections.

To not trade up to grab Braden Fiske would have been the greater evil.

So how did Fiske perform for the LA Rams in his rookie season? He contributed 44 tackles, 8.5 quarterback sacks (tops for all rookies), 10 tackles for a loss, 10 QB hits, and a whopping 51 quarterback pressures:

I was concerned that competing with teammate Jared Verse would keep Fiske in the shadows of his teammate, and not allow Fiske's sensational rookie season to see the light of day. But after all the votes were cast, Fiske was third-place in the AP NFL DROY voting:

Will finishing third demoralize Braden Fiske for 2025? If anything, I suspect that it will only serve to fuel his offseason training and make him even better prepared for next year. After all, Jared Verse and Braden Fiske have a friendly rivalry going, and the two are ultra competitive. There is no way that Fiske allows Verse to claim NFL honors and not be doubly incentivized to do better next year.

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