Javon
Solomon.
Javon
Solomon.
Troy· 6'1"· 246 lb· 4.72s 40
"The FBS sack leader who arrived in Buffalo with an elite first step, average length and no margin for error once an NFL tackle got hands on him — a specialist bet dressed as a producer."Pre-draft read
Solomon lines up as a stand-up BANDIT or hand-in-the-dirt wide-nine rusher and plays with the get-off of a sprinter. His first step and ankle flexion let him bend the corner without decelerating, and he pairs that speed with a violent long-arm and a cross-chop that clears the tackle's outside hand before the set is finished.
Behind the speed rush sits a real inside counter — a tight spin back under blockers who overset the arc. Against the run he is a spiller rather than a setter, quick to wrong-arm and slice but movable when a tight end or a heavy tackle gets square on him. The athletic ceiling is average for the position; the separator is relentlessness, because he wins on second and third efforts and finishes plays 15 yards downfield.
Attacking four-man front with wide-nine alignments and a designated third-down rush package
Year 1: passing-down speed rusher and core special teamer. Ceiling: 500-snap sub-package rusher worth 6-8 sacks in a rotation that protects him from early downs.
Two-gap 3-4 fronts that ask a 5-tech to hold the edge against tight ends, or any defense that needs its edge to play 60 percent of early downs.
Value rises with a defensive line coach who scripts stunts and lets him loop inside against guards.
Javon Solomon (EDGE) - All-22 Film Study, Troy Trojans, 2024 NFL Draft Prospect
All-22 breakdown of his get-off, bend and counter package at Troy.
Troy DE Javon Solomon Vs K-State: All Pass Rushes
Every pass rush against Kansas State, the best Power Five test on his tape.
Javon Solomon Highlights - Most Sacks in College Football
Senior-season reel from the FBS sack leader's 15.5-sack campaign.
Solomon is a short, dense, speed-to-power edge who spent five years at Troy and turned himself from a hybrid off-ball body into the most productive pass rusher in college football. He is not a length or mass prospect; he is a timing, bend and effort prospect who converts a plus first step into pressure faster than most rushers his size.
The production is real and it is not a one-year spike. He broke out in 2021 with 11 sacks and 17 tackles for loss, dipped in a 2022 season where Troy asked him to play more true defensive end, then exploded as a senior with 15.5 sacks and 17 tackles for loss on his way to All-American honors and a Senior Bowl invite. The flag is the frame. At 6-1 and 246 pounds with sub-34-inch arms he can be swallowed once a tackle latches, and his run defense is more disruption than anchor.
The board treated him as a designated rusher rather than a three-down piece: most evaluators had him in the fourth-to-fifth-round range, with the Sun Belt competition and the size profile capping the grade. Buffalo, sitting on a deep edge room, moved up in the fifth to take a specialist who could rush on passing downs and cover kicks immediately. It was a value swing on production, not a projection of a starter.
- 01
Explosive get-off
times the snap as well as any rusher in the class and forces tackles into panic sets before their kick slide is complete.
- 02
Corner bend
genuine ankle flexion and hip flexibility let him flatten to the quarterback without losing speed through the arc.
- 03
Hand violence
a long-arm and cross-chop combination that removes the tackle's outside hand and keeps his own chest clean.
- 04
Elite production
32.5 career sacks and 48.5 tackles for loss at Troy, including a 15.5-sack senior season that led the country.
- 05
Motor and finish
chases from the back side, converts second efforts into sacks and plays through the whistle on every snap.
- 01
Size limits
6-1 and 246 pounds with short arms, so once a tackle latches to his frame he lacks the length to reset the block.
- 02
Run anchor
a spill defender who gets displaced when tight ends or heavy tackles get square, which caps his early-down usage.
- 03
Competition level
Sun Belt tackles rarely tested his plan, and his tape against Power Five fronts showed a narrower win menu.
- 04
Rush plan depth
leans hard on speed and the inside spin; the power conversion and secondary counters still need NFL coaching.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.72sp50
- Vertical
- 37inp50
- Broad jump
- 119inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 23repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Troy | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | Troy | 10 | 29 | 1.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | Troy | 12 | 50 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2022 | Troy | 14 | 42 | 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | Troy | 14 | 54 | 15.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 53 | 179 | 32.5 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Action Network All-American (2023)
- First-team All-Sun Belt (2023)
- Led FBS in sacks as a senior at Troy (2023)
- Tied the Troy single-game record with four sacks vs. ULM (2023)
- Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Week (November 2023)
Short-armed, powerful sub-package rusher with a defined passing-down role.
Undersized bend-and-speed rusher who became a double-digit sack producer once a scheme freed him.
Rotational edge whose college production never turned into a consistent NFL snap share.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Fifth-round edge who has stuck in Buffalo as a special-teams core and situational rusher: two sacks and a forced fumble as a 2024 rookie, then all 17 games in 2025 on roughly 195 defensive snaps (about 20 percent) with 1.0 sack, and back on the roster bubble entering 2026.
Buffalo used him exactly as the profile suggested. As a rookie in 2024 he was a core special teamer and a situational third-down rusher, playing 14 games with limited defensive snaps behind Greg Rousseau and A.J. Epenesa. In 2025 he appeared in all 17 regular-season games and both playoff contests, but the defensive workload stayed thin: roughly 195 defensive snaps, about 20 percent of the total, with 1.0 sack — his highlight a third-down takedown of Michael Penix Jr. in Atlanta. Three career sacks through 31 games is a rotational line, not a rotational breakout. Entering 2026 the Bills overhauled the edge room around him and he opened camp on the roster bubble again.
In hindsight the pick was reasonable and the outcome is honest. A fifth-round rusher who sticks three years, plays every special-teams phase and gives you passing-down snaps is not a miss in the traditional sense — but the college production promised more than a 20 percent snap share. The traits that made him the FBS sack leader travel in flashes; what has not translated is the ability to win against NFL-caliber length when the first move fails. He remains what he was drafted to be: a specialist who has never earned a defined defensive role.