Player
Braden Fiske
DT · Rams
Braden Fiske: facts drawn from the play-by-play.
Rookie 8.5 sacks from interior DL is rare. He did it as a second-round pick.
TrendFiske season totals (regular season)
| Year | G | Sacks | QB Hits | TFL | Tackles | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 16 | 8.5 | 10 | 10 | 41 | 2 |
| 2025 | 15 | 3.0 | 10 | 4 | 29 | 0 |
The 39th overall pick out of Florida State broke out immediately: 8.5 sacks as a rookie from the interior, with 10 QB hits and 41 tackles across 16 games. He played second-fiddle to a defensive rookie of the year candidate (Jared Verse) and still emerged as the most disruptive interior rusher LAR has fielded in years.
Year two saw a regression to 3.0 sacks but the QB hit rate held steady at 10 — the same as his rookie year despite playing one fewer game. The pressure is still there; the conversion has cooled.
His 8.5 rookie sacks ranks among the best interior-DL debut seasons of the modern era.
RareHighest rookie sack totals — defensive linemen since 2015 (regular season)
| Player | Year | G | Rookie Sacks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joey Bosa | 2016 | 12 | 10.5 |
| Josh Hines-Allen | 2019 | 16 | 10.5 |
| Maxx Crosby | 2019 | 16 | 10.0 |
| Aidan Hutchinson | 2022 | 16 | 9.5 |
| Preston Smith | 2015 | 16 | 9.0 |
| Nick Bosa | 2019 | 14 | 9.0 |
| Kobie Turner | 2023 | 17 | 9.0 |
| Carl Lawson | 2017 | 13 | 8.5 |
| Braden Fiske | 2024 | 16 | 8.5 |
Among all defensive linemen since 2015, Fiske’s 8.5 rookie sacks ties him with Carl Lawson and sits in the top-9 — a group dominated by 1st-round picks (Bosa×2, Hutchinson, Hines-Allen, Crosby).
The LAR pattern is striking: two of the top-9 rookies on this list are Rams — Kobie Turner (2023) and Fiske (2024). Same team, back-to-back interior DL draft hits.
The 2024 LAR draft duo: Fiske and Verse combine for 23.5 sacks in two years.
ComparisonVerse + Fiske — career production through 2025 (regular season)
| Player | Year | G | Sacks | QB Hits | TFL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jared Verse | 2024 | 17 | 4.5 | 18 | 11 |
| Braden Fiske | 2024 | 16 | 8.5 | 10 | 10 |
| Jared Verse | 2025 | 17 | 7.5 | 27 | 11 |
| Braden Fiske | 2025 | 15 | 3.0 | 10 | 4 |
The 19th and 39th overall picks in the 2024 draft have given LAR 23.5 combined sacks and 65 QB hits in two seasons. Fiske led the duo in sacks as a rookie (8.5 to 4.5); Verse has flipped the script in year two (7.5 to 3.0).
It’s the kind of paired interior+edge rookie hit that rebuilds a defensive front in a single draft.
All 11.5 career sacks have come on pass plays — none on run downs.
SplitFiske involvement by play type (2024–2025)
| Play Type | Snaps Involved | Sacks | QB Hits | TFL | Tackles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | 31 | 11.5 | 20 | 13 | 19 |
| Run | 53 | 0.0 | 0 | 1 | 51 |
Like most modern interior rushers, Fiske is bimodal: he’s a one-gap penetrator on pass downs and a backside chaser on runs. Every one of his career sacks and QB hits has come on a passing play; on run plays he’s contributed 51 tackles but zero pressures.
That run/pass shape is what gets a 2nd-round interior DT a starting role on Day 1 in the NFL.
Three 2-sack games in a five-week stretch as a rookie.
MilestoneFiske multi-sack games (regular season)
| Year | Wk | Game | Sacks | QB Hits | Tackles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 9 | LA vs SEA | 2.0 | 2 | 4 |
| 2024 | 11 | LA vs NE | 2.0 | 2 | 3 |
| 2024 | 17 | LA vs ARI | 2.0 | 3 | 2 |
His rookie year had three 2-sack games, all in the second half of the season. The Week 9–Week 11 run vs Seattle and New England — 4 sacks in two games — was the moment he became a starter rather than a rotational rookie.
He has yet to record a multi-sack game in 2025.
Inside the 2024 first-round-or-second-round DT class, his 11.5 career sacks lead by a wide margin.
Comparison2024 draft interior DLs through two seasons
| Player | Career G | Sacks | QB Hits | Tackles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braden Fiske | 31 | 11.5 | 20 | 70 |
| Brandon Dorlus | 16 | 8.5 | 11 | 27 |
| Kris Jenkins | 26 | 4.5 | 8 | 66 |
| Ruke Orhorhoro | 23 | 3.5 | 7 | 33 |
| T'Vondre Sweat | 27 | 3.0 | 6 | 77 |
| Darius Robinson | 19 | 2.0 | 3 | 50 |
| Byron Murphy | 33 | 0.0 | 0 | 143 |
Among 2024-drafted interior defensive linemen, Fiske’s 11.5 sacks are more than the next five combined excluding Dorlus. First-rounder Byron Murphy (#16 overall, Seattle) has yet to record a sack across 33 career games.
The gap is mostly the 20 QB hits — nobody else in the class has more than 11. Whether the year-two slip is noise or a coverage adjustment, the underlying pressure profile is unique inside his draft class.
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