NFL Mock Draft 2024: Rams Day 2 predictions

And now, who do we mock to the Rams on Day 2 of the 2024 NFL Draft?

Having not been here since the 2016 NFL Draft, it feels a bit awkward entering Day 2 of an NFL Draft with a prospect already added to this team. But as much of a fit and as high of a ceiling as OLB Jared Verse might bring to the Rams' defense, he is just one player. And like it or not, the Rams were incredibly spoiled by the rookie seasons of OLB Byron Young and NT Kobie Turner in 2023.

That is, even if he starts and plays a lion's share of the defense snaps, we cannot expect Verse to match the rookie season of Byron Young's 61 tackles and 8.0 quarterback sacks. Even Houston Texans' Will Anderson only put up 45 tackles and 7.0 quarterback sacks in his 2023 Defensive Rookie Of The Year season. So the front office needs to do more.

With the 52nd pick of the 2024 NFL Draft

The LA Rams select defensive lineman Braden Fiske, out of Florida State. While it may be a strange coincidence to double-dip from the Florida State defense with the two top picks out of the 2024 NFL Draft, I can assure you that Fiske at 52 is an incredible value. Standing 6-foot-4 and tipping the scales at a burly 292 pounds, Fiske is a versatile interior defensive lineman who has the agility, power, and low center of gravity to effectively line up anywhere along the 3-4 defensive fr

The LA Rams will need instant production on the defensive front, and there is something to be said about the synergy of selecting to players from the same college in the same draft to man that defensive front. But let's be very clear. This is not some experiment to see if two college football stars can recapture that magic in the pros. On many draft boards, Verse and Fiske were both separately among the Top 10 defenders in this rookie draft class.

Many of the traits that made Kobit Turner so effective for the Rams on the defensive line in 2023 also attract the Rams attention in 2024 to Braden Fiske. He is amazingly powerful, but he is as agile as a housecat, also seeming to stay on his feet as he powers through blockers to the ball carrier. He is in constant motion, like a jack hammer, who uses that relentless agility and powerful punches to gain and leverage his advantage at the line of scrimmage.

Because he is both swift and strong, he brings a solid bunker of pass rush move ammunition to blast his way through even the stingiest offensive linemen. And with the transition of NT Kobie Turner to a new defensive-lineman-at-large role in 2024, the team will need a new rotational partner to slide in with Bobby Brown III to anchor the center of the Rams defensive front.