Braden Fiske Is Focused Heading Into Next Season

Last year in the NFL draft, the Los Angeles Rams decided to reunite their first-round pick, Jared Verse, with his college teammate Braden Fiske, and they took him in the second round. A year later, Verse has the potential to be the best edge rusher in the NFL, Fiske looks like he'll be the Robin to Verse's Batman.

Both Verse and Fiske had amazing rookie seasons, which ended up with both of them being DROY finalists. Ultimately, Fiske didn't win the award, but I'm sure he's happy for his close friend regardless. In 2024, Fiske had 44 total tackles with two forced fumbles and 8.5 sacks.

He was healthy throughout the season but did sustain an injury in the loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the Divisional round of the playoffs. This injury made him undergo surgery on his knee, and in the Rams' new video series Behind the Grind, Fiske opened up on how he felt when he sustained the injury and his focus heading into next season.

"When you're in the middle of the game, you're on the sideline, the last thing you're thinking about is pulling yourself out. The cardinal rule of football is you don't want to take yourself off the field. Those are the tough conversations you have with your staff and coaches, of, Hey, am I going to benefit the team by being out there playing like this?

I would try to loosen up more, and I get going, slowly feel a little bit better, but then this isn't going to benefit the team. So the best thing to do is to shut it down. I mean, it was rough; you never think about getting injured in the middle of the game.

I think of the moment it kind of happens, and obviously, it's not the way you want it to go, but at the end of the day, it makes this process even sweeter. What I'm going through now, going into next season, will be a lot better. Mentally, I'm in a really good spot.

Fiske and the rest of the Rams' ascending defense are why the Rams' stock is up heading into next season. It's heartwarming to see him make so much progress on his recovery, and hopefully, he'll be all good to play by the start of next season, so the Rams can begin to close the gap between them and the Eagles.