This training camp, Fiske is also adjusting to life without close friend and former teammate Jared Verse, who was included in the trade package sent to the Browns for Myles Garrett.
Fiske said the move was a “surprise” at the time, and now things have settled, he admitted to having mixed emotions about it.
“I think you can be happy and sad at the same time for things,” Fiske said. “Obviously I lose a brother, somebody I was super close to, played together in college, drafted together, it was a fairy tale type of story, and I think we were a little naive to think that that could have lasted forever, right? I mean, the NFL is a business, things happen, and then you can also be happy on the side of, man, it’s not every day you get to play next to a Hall-of-Famer, so I think that opportunity is unbelievable in itself. I’m excited to get to work with Myles, got to talk with him some at OTAs, get a little work in, so I’m excited to get this thing going.”
A few weeks into the Rams’ summer break following the end of OTAs, Fiske went home to visit family, and it was around that time he started getting the “itch” of wanting to get back to work and be around his teammates again.
How will he scratch that itch now that he’s here and back among familiar faces?
“Oh, well, as soon as we hit that conditioning test at 1 o’clock, I’m sure that itch will get scratched pretty quick,” Fiske said, drawing laughter from assembled media. “I think as soon as you walk in, it’s like you leave off right from where we were in OTAs. Just feels good to see everybody. Being in LA, it’s not a not a place you really want to leave, so a lot of guys stick around, and we were able to hang out, get some work in while we were here in the summer. So, like I said, man, excited to be back. It’s a great place to be. I love being in L.A, I love being a Ram, so just to be back, getting back to work is the best thing.”
And even better: To do it feeling as great as he possibly can.