Solomon

Byrd

Watson will get his first chance to play since being placed on injured reserve in the middle of September. The 29-year-old wideout will be a depth piece for the finale against the Colts and Houston’s postseason run. Solomon Byrd was waived to make room on the roster.

Two years after leaving Wyoming for the Trojans, Byrd (6’3/255) enters the draft with a resume of consistent play. The sixth-year player had four seasons of solid production, with 6.0 sacks, 11.0 TFL, and an impressive four forced fumbles in his most recent. After an unimpressive combine in which he earned a putrid 1.61 RAS score, his stock has soured. Byrd possesses above average bend for the position and combines that with a few effective moves to earn a respectable 81.7 PFF grade as a pass rusher in 2023. Although he scored highly, he was often stunted by advanced competition and his lack of any athletic tools will likely hold him back from translating this success to the NFL. As a run defender, he has enough strength to survive on the edge and his 33 ⅝ inch arms will help him improve as a block shedder with time. The Palmdale, GA native has impressive production, and graded highly per PFF, but the athletic traits are not there at all. If his pass rush move fails, he has nothing to fall back on. For someone who struggled against the better tackles on his schedule, that’s hard to look past.

Byrd (6'4/249) is a former two-star recruit from the 2018 class who attended Wyoming for the last four years before briefly transferring to Georgia Tech, which he has since backed off. He excelled on the rush, accruing 37 tackles, 17 pressures and 3.5 sacks for the Cowboys last season, receiving a solid 75.7 pass rush grade according to PFF. He can over-pursue at time which leads to him missing tackles, as is evidenced by his ghastly 27% missed tackle rate. Though he opted out of the 2020 season, Byrd was highly productive in 2019 recording 40 pressures in 270 pass rush snaps. With USC losing Drake Jackson to the NFL Draft, they could certainly use Byrd’s ability to create pressure off the edge.

The former two-star recruit played really well in his limited time with the Cowboys. He accumulated 82 total tackles and ten sacks in 2019 and in just eight games in 2021 (he opted out of the 2020 season). Byrd (6'4"/249) has shown he has some burst through the line of scrimmage and now he gets to show that as he moves to the power five.

Byrd (6'4"/249) had 82 total tackles (13 for loss) and ten sacks combined in 2019 and 2021 (he opted out of the 2020 season), which is solid production for a DE. It is also worth nothing he only played eight games in 2021 due to a season-ending injury. Byrd has played well above his two-star recruiting status, and has experience and production to land somewhere significant.