ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Making the jump from college football to the pros isn’t an easy transition for many rookies in the NFL.
“Everybody’s good here,” Bills defensive end Javon Solomon said. “A move too early, a move too late gets you stuck.”
However, for the Bills fifth-round draft pick Javon Solomon, his adjustment into the league has been simplified with the help of some veteran teammates.
“Understanding my rushes, understanding my angles,” Solomon said. “Von kind of simplified for me. It's all about your eyes. Your technique. What you're gonna do. Understanding the concept of your move before you even do it. So that's probably the biggest thing I've learned from rookie minicamp to now.”
“When you’re coming from a program that’s a good program and they've had success, the level of talent he’s facing at this level is different,” Bills head coach Sean McDermott said. “So learning the game and learning how to adjust one's game and the techniques that come with it takes some time.”
Despite having to adjust on the fly and learn new techniques at the pro level, Solomon said he wants to keep his unique style of play that he used at Troy University and rather build on it as he continues to grow as a rookie in the league.
“There’s things that I was doing in college that might not work here,” Solomon said. “But those are the same things that I could just evolve and change and make them better. So it’s all about continuing to grow and that little thing that I think is unique, maybe not a lot of people have seen. I'll never completely get rid of my game because I feel like that's what got me here but evolving, changing it to make an all-pro status to make it better, that's what it's about.”
Solomon is now embracing this season of his career with his new team as he looks to evolve as an NFL player in Buffalo.
“We're learning, getting better and that's all my coaches want me to do,” Solomon said.
Solomon and the rest of the Bills now look to the team’s next preseason game on the road in Pittsburgh on Saturday at 7 p.m.
