Braden
Fiske.
Braden
Fiske.
Florida State· 6'4"· 292 lb· 4.78s 40
"The Senior Bowl riser who turned one transfer season in Tallahassee and one absurd forty into a top-40 pick, then went out and led all rookie interior linemen in sacks."Pre-draft read
Fiske is a 6-4, 292-pound interior lineman who played mostly as a shaded three-technique at Florida State, and his game starts with the snap. He is out of his stance before guards can settle, converting a low, flat get-off into penetration in the B-gap and forcing the play to bend around him rather than through him.
The hands match the feet. He swipes and rips through contact instead of catching blocks, keeps his shoulders clean and chases plays down the line with a motor that never idles. Against the run he can be moved by mass, but he is a problem on the move and on stunts, where the burst and body control turn a normal twist into free rushing space.
Attacking one-gap four-man front that lets him shoot a single gap upfield instead of reading and reacting to blocks.
Year 1: sub-package interior rusher on a rotation. Ceiling: every-down 3-technique who wins the same gap on all three downs.
Two-gap 3-4 that asks him to read the guard and hold the point against down blocks, where his mass gets exposed.
He is a penetrator, not an occupier — the scheme has to let him be wrong fast.
Florida State DT Braden Fiske 2023 Highlights
Transfer season in Tallahassee: get-off, penetration and the six-sack ACC title run.
Rams Rookie DT Braden Fiske Is A NIGHTMARE For The NFL | Film Analysis
Rep-by-rep look at the first step, hand speed and stunt work that translated instantly.
HIGHLIGHTS: Braden Fiske Top Plays From 2024 Rookie Season
All 8.5 sacks and the November stretch that won him Defensive Rookie of the Month.
A five-year Western Michigan starter who transferred to Florida State for his final season and immediately looked like he belonged, Fiske is a movement-first interior rusher rather than a point-of-attack anchor. Everything he does well flows from quickness: the get-off, the hand speed, the ability to cross a blocker's face before the block is set.
The production climbed every year. He posted 56 tackles and 10.5 tackles for loss in his last Broncos season, then 42 tackles, nine tackles for loss and six sacks against ACC competition in 2023 for a Seminoles team that won the conference. The flags were consistent across evaluations: an older prospect, a frame without much room left, and reps where power players simply washed him out of his gap on down blocks.
Senior Bowl week moved him. He won practice player of the week honors on the American roster and then ran 4.78 at 292 pounds in Indianapolis, a testing profile that put him in rare athletic company for the position. Boards that had him as a Day 2 flier in December had him firmly in the second round by April, and the Rams traded up to pick 39 to pair him with Jared Verse.
- 01
Explosive get-off
Fires out of his stance with elite timing and pad level, beating guards to the contact point before they can gather and set their base.
- 02
Hand quickness
Swipes, rips and clubs with speed and accuracy, working through blocks rather than absorbing them and keeping his frame clean into the backfield.
- 03
Rare athletic testing
A 4.78 forty and 9-9 broad jump at 292 pounds confirmed on turf what the tape showed: he is a genuine mover on the interior.
- 04
Stunt and twist value
Loops and crosses with balance and speed, turning line games into free runs and giving a coordinator a real pressure lever.
- 05
Relentless motor
Chases plays sideline to sideline and finishes through the whistle, adding tackles for loss that never showed up in the original rush plan.
- 01
Anchor against power
Gets displaced by down blocks and doubles when he cannot win first, and there are reps where he simply loses the gap to mass.
- 02
Frame limits
Filled-out body with little room to add weight, which caps how much of the run-down snap count he can reasonably carry.
- 03
Age curve
He entered the league as a sixth-year college player, older than the typical second-rounder, so the developmental runway is shorter than his production trend suggests.
- 04
Rush plan depth
Wins so often with the first step that his counters are thin, and patient veteran guards can take away the initial move.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.78sp50
- Vertical
- 33.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 117inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- 4.37sp50
- Bench
- 26repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Western Michigan | 11 | 24 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Western Michigan | 6 | 23 | 2.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Western Michigan | 12 | 43 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Western Michigan | 12 | 56 | 4.5 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2023 | Florida State | 13 | 42 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 54 | 188 | 18 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Season splits from CFBD (games via ESPN game logs); redshirted 2018. Forced fumbles and recoveries not verified season by season, so they are left blank rather than zeroed.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Productive interior disruptor who stacks sacks from a starter-level rotation role.
Same short-area quickness and motor with a broader run-defense floor.
Flashy penetrator whose production swings year to year with health and scheme.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The Rams traded up for him and used him immediately. Fiske played all 17 games as a rookie in 2024, finished with 44 tackles, 8.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries, and was named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Month in November on the strength of a five-sack stretch. He made the PFWA All-Rookie team and was in the Defensive Rookie of the Year conversation, which is not a small thing for an interior player in his first season next to another rookie in Jared Verse.
Year two was quieter and more complicated. He again played 17 games in 2025 but the numbers fell to 30 tackles and three sacks, and he later acknowledged working through a knee problem that cost him the burst the whole profile is built on. That is the honest read on the evaluation so far: the athletic bet was right, the pass-rush juice is real and translated instantly, and the durability and anchor questions that pushed him out of round one are the exact things that will decide whether he is a good starter or a disruptive one. Pick 39 already looks like value.
Data note: Season splits from CFBD (games via ESPN game logs); redshirted 2018. Forced fumbles and recoveries not verified season by season, so they are left blank rather than zeroed.