Second-round draft steal had no idea the Los Angeles Rams were going to select him

Braden Fiske didn't see his No. 39 selection by the Los Angeles Rams coming.

The defensive tackle recently told Forbes that the Rams were among the group of teams he believed weren't interested due to the limited pre-draft contact he had with them.

"I was definitely surprised," said Fiske in an exclusive one-on-one interview with DJ Siddiqi , a contributor at Forbes. "Because I've talked about it many times in the pre-draft process, every team kind of plays their cards differently of how they show interest, the way that they recruit you, how they get to know you, how they kind of do their background checks on you. I didn't really do anything with the Rams, hadn't really heard much from them, hadn't really talked to any of them at the All-Star games or the Combine."

Surprising, or not, the Rams made it known that Fiske was the player the team wanted. To land him, Los Angeles had to pull off a draft day trade with the Carolina Panthers, sending the No. 52 and No. 155 and a 2025 second-round to Carolina in exchange for the No. 39th pick that became Fiske.

He has massive shoes to fill. Aaron Donald retired at the start of the offseason, sending the Rams on a journey to reshape the defensive front.

Fiske is a part of that future .

While at Florida State, Fiske recorded 43 tackles, including 9.0 for loss with 6.0 sacks, and five quarterback hurries. Los Angeles is hoping he does the same at the NFL level – even if his selection came by surprise.

"When it did happen, it was a big surprise to me," says a smiling Fiske. "I wasn't expecting the Rams – because they didn't have a selection until a few picks later – but they jumped up and got me and I couldn't be in a better situation. Where I'm at now with this coaching staff, this is probably the best situation I could have been put in."

Related: Los Angeles Rams trade up to select defensive tackle Braden Fiske in wake of Aaron Donald retirement