Ja'Von Rolland-Jones has mapped out the route to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
It's 30 minutes from his family's home in Mesquite, Texas, where the former Arkansas State University defensive end and No. 2 all-time sack leader in the Football Bowl Subdivision will wait for a phone call from the National Football League.
Rolland-Jones' family is throwing an NFL Draft party Saturday, which is when his agent and NFL team representatives have told him he could be drafted anywhere from the fourth to seventh round.
That would make Rolland-Jones the 48th Arkansas State player drafted into the NFL -- former end Alfred Bentley was drafted by the AFL's New York Titans in 1961 -- and the first since 2014, when defensive tackle Ryan Carrethers was drafted 165th overall by the then-San Diego Chargers in the fifth round.
For now, Rolland-Jones waits, having given the NFL reps his draft-day phone number and airport.
When that call comes, he'll find his way to the runway.
"I would get there in no time," Rolland-Jones said.
Rolland-Jones spent his college career getting to quarterbacks in no time. The Sun Belt Conference twice named him its overall player of the year, and he finished his career a half-sack shy of the 44 sacks needed to break the FBS career record set by Terrell Suggs at Arizona State from 2000-2002.
"He certainly had an incredible career," said Arkansas State defensive line coach Brian Early, who met with Rolland-Jones when he visited Jonesboro on Saturday for the Red Wolves' spring game. "I really hope it happens for Ja'Von. I coached him all four years and saw all the growth and the work he put into it."
After Arkansas State finished its 7-5 season in 2017 with a 35-30 loss to Middle Tennessee State in the Camellia Bowl, Rolland-Jones said he started working out at the Michael Johnson Performance Center in McKinney, Texas, in preparation for the NFL Scouting Combine.
The 6-2, 253-pound pass rusher tested in just the 40-yard dash (4.88 seconds) and bench press (23 repetitions of 225 pounds) in Indianapolis. He said he didn't do more because he strained his oblique during the combine's drills.
Rolland-Jones doesn't think that injury will affect his draft stock.
"I think my film speaks for itself," he said.
NFL teams, he said, have reached out in advance of the draft and said they expect him to be a hybrid defensive end/outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense -- a position that is usually reserved for a pure pass rusher.
Early said he doesn't believe Rolland-Jones' size will inhibit his chances of getting drafted, and he mentioned that one of the ends he coached at the University of Central Arkansas, Larry Hart, was drafted in the fifth round in 2010 by the Jacksonville Jaguars despite his 6-1, 248-pound frame.
Hart played 14 games for the Jaguars in 2010 and recorded 1½ sacks.
"[Rolland-Jones] is a natural pass rusher," Early said. "He can beat you with speed and power, and there's not a lot of guys out there like that."
If the draft-day call comes, Rolland-Jones said he has no preference of what team is on the other line.
"I'm wide open," Rolland-Jones said. "I just want a shot."
Sports on 04/26/2018