As a fifth-round rookie from Troy, Javon Solomon played 134 defensive snaps for the Buffalo Bills in 2024. Of the five defensive ends who played more snaps for Buffalo last season, three are no longer with the Bills.

But that doesn’t automatically mean more action for Solomon in his second NFL season. While Von Miller, Dawuane Smoot and Casey Toohill are gone, Buffalo signed five-time Pro Bowler Joey Bosa and drafted Landon Jackson from Arkansas in the third round on April 25 to join Greg Rousseau, AJ Epenesa and Solomon.

“At the end of the day, football is competition,” Solomon said, “so you got to go out there and put your best foot forward every time you step on the grass. But having a room like that, being able to learn from them guys, man, that’s a big opportunity for me. You know what I’m saying? Like whatever position I’m in, I’m hearing what they’re saying, leaning on those guys to be able to see what I can do to just naturally get better, and, end of the day, that’s kind of what matters in football.

“Either you’re going to be growing or you’re going to be dying, so you have to have that constant mindset: Well, I’m getting better.”

Although he saw most of his action on special teams with 241 plays, Solomon contributed two sacks, six quarterback hits, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery for the Buffalo defense as a rookie.

“Our playbook’s the same,” Solomon said. “We haven’t changed anything too much. So now being able to pay attention to the details and be able to just fine-tune things, because back then, I’m just running out there, I’m just trying to do my job every single play. But now I can do my job at a higher level because I’m excelling because I actually know what my guy’s doing, I know what the whole line is doing, and so that’s just what it kind of is.”

Solomon said a season of experience and another offseason of practice had made a noticeable difference.

“Then I was looking,” Solomon said. “I was, like, I’m trying to look at, oh, let me see what I could do different at the top of the rush. But every rush starts with a get-off. I’m missing the key point — the initial point of the rush. So now I’m focused on the main: What’s my stance like? What’s my angle like? Where are my eyes at? So that’s all before the ball’s even snapped, so now there are different keys coming in that I have to make sure I’m incorporating into my game so I can excel, so I can make those almost become actual sacks, you know, actual numbers.

“So that was probably the biggest thing — understanding pre-snap, just pre-snap stuff. Now it’s learning at the top of the rush. How can I get that toe turn so I can be facing the quarterback? Maybe make that play. How I can just maybe stick an arm out, maybe just to get the ball out. It’s little things like that.”

The Bills have completed their offseason program. Buffalo will be back at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York, for training camp, with the rookies reporting on July 15 and the veterans on July 22. The Bills start their three-game preseason schedule on Aug. 9 against the New York Giants.

Before leaving for the summer break, Solomon said he would be ready for training camp.

“I’m the type of guy, I kind of bounce around a little bit,” Solomon said, “so I’ll probably be in Dallas for like two weeks, then I’ll go down to South Florida a little bit. You know, there’s different training facilities with different trainers I like, so I like to maybe try to hit those. I like to get a different feel for things, so kind of go back and forth from those and get back up here probably like two weeks before training camp, work with Will (Greenberg), he’s the new strength coach, and he’s doing a great job, so to be able to get some work in with him, just be in the best shape.

“And I got a list of things I’m going into the summer with, and Will’s definitely going to help me out with some of those things, so we’re doing some Pilates, doing yoga, doing swimming, we got a bunch of things locked in.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.