Landon
Jackson.
Landon
Jackson.
Arkansas· 6'6"· 264 lb· 4.68s 40
"A long-levered power end whose relentless hand violence and impressive reach define his game, Jackson projects as a scheme-specific base defensive end despite never elevating his sack production."Pre-draft read
Base right defensive end in an even front who plays with a wide, heavy-handed style rather than a track-start burst. At 6-6, 264 he builds speed instead of exploding into it, so his wins come on the second beat: long-arm, swipe-and-rip, cross-chop — reach converted into displacement before the tackle settles his hands.
Run defense is the more reliable half. He sets a firm edge with extension, keeps the outside arm free against down blocks, and squeezes reduced splits without losing contain. The vertical and broad say bounce; the forty and change-of-direction numbers say straight-line power player. The signature is the hand swipe, which produced strip-sacks in college and remains his cleanest path to disruption.
Attacking four-man front that lets a long, heavy-handed base end play the run on early downs and long-arm from a 5-tech on passing downs.
Year 1: rotational base end and early-down edge setter. Ceiling: full-time strong-side starter who plays 60% of snaps and posts six to eight sacks on power.
A wide-9 speed-rush front that asks him to win with get-off and corner flexion in a track stance — his forty and ankle bend both cap that role.
He is a front-seven cornerstone in a Fangio-style four-down defense and a liability in a pure sub-package speed scheme.
Landon Jackson — Arkansas 2024 highlights
Senior-season reel: edge setting, long-arm power and the swipe counter.
Landon Jackson full college highlights
Career compilation across all three Arkansas seasons.
Will Campbell vs Landon Jackson — LSU/Arkansas matchup
Every rep against a first-round left tackle; the clearest test of his rush plan.
Jackson is a long, powerfully built edge defender whose identity is built on length and leverage rather than bend. He rushes upright, plays through contact, and wins by out-reaching and out-muscling tackles instead of running the arc. That makes him a scheme-specific piece: a base defensive end first and a situational rusher second.
The production arc supports the traits without inflating them. A backup year at LSU, a rotational season at Arkansas, then two full seasons as a starter with 13.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks as a junior and 9.5 and 6.5 as a senior. He was first-team All-SEC in 2023, second-team in 2024, and produced a strip-sack at the Senior Bowl. The flag is that the sack total never moved despite an every-down role, and the tape explains it: he lacks the ankle flexion to flatten and too often converts pressure into a hold rather than a finish.
Boards had him as a clean early Day 2 defensive end with a Day 1 run-defense floor and a modest pass-rush ceiling. Buffalo, chronically thin behind Greg Rousseau, took him at 72 as depth with starter traits rather than a plug-and-play rusher. Reasonable value for the profile, and priced correctly.
- 01
Length as a weapon
33+ inch arms he actually uses, extending into the tackle's chest to control the rep before the blocker can land his own punch.
- 02
Hand swipe
the swipe-and-rip counter is genuinely refined and produced multiple strip-sacks, including one on Jackson Dart and another at the Senior Bowl.
- 03
Edge setting
squeezes down blocks with a free outside arm and rarely gets displaced off the point of attack, which is why he never left the field on early downs.
- 04
Power conversion
a heavy long-arm that walks tackles into the quarterback's lap and collapses the pocket even when it does not show up in the box score.
- 05
Explosive testing
a 40.5-inch vertical and a 10-9 broad at 264 pounds confirm the lower-body pop that shows on bull rushes and push-pull finishes.
- 01
No bend
cannot flatten around the corner, so pressure turns into a wide arc rather than a sack and quarterbacks step up into vacated space.
- 02
Late get-off
a 4.68 forty and build-up speed mean he loses the first two steps against quick-setting tackles and has to rush through contact.
- 03
Finishing rate
16 sacks across 42 games is thin for a full-time starter with his frame; he generates more disruption than he converts.
- 04
Pad level
plays tall and lets his chest get exposed, which invites the counter-punch from compact tackles who can get under his frame.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.68sp50
- Vertical
- 40.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 129inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Arkansas | 13 | 21 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2023 | Arkansas | 12 | 45 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2024 | Arkansas | 12 | 49 | 6.5 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Career | — | 37 | 115 | 16.5 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Rotational base end with real length who flashes strip-sack production in the right role.
Long, upright power end who grew into a nine-sack starter without ever being a bender.
Long-armed rotational edge who stays on rosters as a run-defense body without a pass-rush plan.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Buffalo drafted him into the deepest position group on its roster and it showed immediately. He was a healthy inactive in six of the Bills' first nine games in 2025, appearing in only three contests for a combined 30 defensive snaps and no recorded statistics. He finally got a real look in Week 10 against Miami — with Michael Hoecht lost for the season and A.J. Epenesa unavailable — and tore his MCL and PCL in the first quarter. Buffalo placed him on injured reserve on November 11, making him the fourth member of a nine-man draft class to land there. The Bills went 12-5 without him and he finished the year with a stat line of zeros.
There is nothing to judge yet, and that is the honest read. A rookie edge behind Rousseau, Hoecht and Epenesa was always going to be a redshirt in practice, and the knee erased the one window that opened. The pre-draft question — whether a bendless power rusher can produce sacks against NFL tackles — remains completely unanswered. What matters is the rehab and whether Buffalo's 2026 additions push him further down the depth chart before he ever gets a clean year.