Rams 2024 NFL Draft remains a heartwarming testament to friendship

Synergy of collegiate friendship is worth investing in

The true tale of the 2024 NFL Draft was forged in the second round. The LA Rams realized in Round 2 that this team had a golden and very rare opportunity to clip two teammates from the Seminoles defense and graft them both into the LA Rams defense. I am talking about the opportunity to trade up and select rookie defensive tackle Braden Fiske. A run on defensive linemen began in the early picks of Round 2. So to get Fiske, the team had to trade up.

The cost of trading up from the 52nd overall pick to the 39th overall pick required the Rams to pay a premium. That premium meant adding a 2024 NFL Draft Round 5 pick, and a 2025 NFL Draft Round 2 pick, to trade up for the Carolina Panthers 39th overall pick.

The Rams pulled the trigger. And many NFL analysts went bonkers, declaring the move as a huge overpay. But we cautioned that instant overreaction, and for good reasons. This was not a matter of knee-jerk reaction to a player who simply checked the box for the defensive tackle position. Braden Fiske was Jared Verse's teammate and friend. They were two players whose competitive nature pushed one another to be two of the best defenders in the 2024 NFL Draft.

And the Rams found a way to transplant all of those positive dynamics into the defensive line:

A rookie's first season in the NFL is the make-or-break point of it all. So if the Rams instincts were correct in paying the premium price for two teammates to fast-track their transition to the NFL, then so much the better. The point is that NFL analysts sometimes fail to grasp the whole picture in their deep dive into the weeds.

In any NFL Draft trade, just as is the case for any trade for an NFL veteran, the subsequent production justifies whether or not the price was fair market value or not.