Jason
Strowbridge.
Jason
Strowbridge.
North Carolina· 6'4"· 275 lb· 4.89s 40
"He played every alignment on a college defensive front and never quite owned one of them, which is the whole evaluation in a single sentence."Pre-draft read
Strowbridge is a long, heavy-handed defensive lineman built to play inside and out. North Carolina moved him everywhere: as a senior he took 283 snaps in the B gap, 272 as a four technique over the tackle, 111 outside the tackle and 23 in the A gap. He two-gaps with real strength, stacks and sheds blockers with a strong punch, and holds his ground against down blocks.
The second trait is disruption around the ball. He recovered three fumbles as a senior to tie for the ACC lead and blocked four kicks in his career, which is a length and effort profile more than a bend profile. He rushes with power and heavy hands rather than with a first step, and he wins in the run game before he wins in the pass game.
Multiple front that rotates linemen and asks its ends to two-gap on early downs and reduce inside on passing downs
Year 1 rotational base end and interior sub rusher plus special teams; ceiling is a starting two-gap five technique
A one-gap attacking front built on get-off and bend, where his lack of burst leaves him without a way to win
His best long-term home was probably as a full-time interior player at a heavier playing weight.
North Carolina DL Jason Strowbridge Highlight Reel - 2019 Season
Senior reel showing the alignment versatility, heavy hands and run-game anchor.
UNC DL Jason Strowbridge Top Plays 2018
Junior season plays from his best pass-rush year, 5.5 sacks and 7.5 tackles for loss.
Jason Strowbridge, ER (UNC) at Senior Bowl
Senior Bowl practice reps against professional-level offensive linemen.
Strowbridge is a versatile interior-and-edge defender whose value is alignment flexibility, not premium production. He played 44 games with 33 starts across four seasons for North Carolina, moving between defensive tackle and defensive end as the staff needed, and finished with 127 tackles, 22 tackles for loss, 11.5 sacks and four blocked kicks. His college line coach praised his work ethic and coachability, and Miami targeted him as a locker room piece as much as a rotation body.
The production curve is the issue. His best pass-rush season was his junior year with 5.5 sacks and 7.5 tackles for loss; as a senior he produced 45 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss and three sacks while playing more than half his snaps as an interior defender. Across the last two seasons combined he registered ten sacks and 43 run stops, which is solid rotational output rather than the disruption a team is chasing from a 6-5, 275-pound defender with this much length.
The board read him as a Day 3 five-technique who could kick inside in sub packages, a safe floor with a capped ceiling. Miami, rebuilding its front and adding volume on Day 3, took the hometown player at 154 expecting a rotational role and special teams value on the kick block units.
- 01
Alignment versatility
Lined up from the A gap to outside the tackle as a senior and even took eight snaps off the ball, giving a coordinator multiple front answers.
- 02
Play strength
Two-gaps with a strong punch, stacks blockers and holds the point against down blocks at the four technique.
- 03
Length
At 6-5 with 32.5-inch arms he keeps blockers off his frame, knocks down passes and blocked four kicks in his college career.
- 04
Ball disruption
Recovered three fumbles as a senior to tie for the ACC lead and added two forced fumbles across his four seasons.
- 05
Makeup
His college position coach called him unusually coachable and hard-working, and Mack Brown singled out his unselfishness about moving inside.
- 01
Pass-rush plan
Wins with power and heavy hands but lacks a counter off the bull rush, which is why his sack total peaked at 5.5 in a season.
- 02
First step
Not a sudden get-off, so he rarely threatens an offensive tackle up the arc and has to grind reps to get home.
- 03
Production for the profile
Ten sacks across his final two seasons is rotational output for a starter who played more than 1,700 college snaps.
- 04
Role definition
A tweener between five technique and three technique who does not have an obvious best position at the next level.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.89sp50
- Vertical
- 31inp50
- Broad jump
- 113inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.45sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.37sp50
- Bench
- 26repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | North Carolina | 9 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | North Carolina | 12 | 34 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 2018 | North Carolina | 11 | 36 | 5.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2019 | North Carolina | 12 | 45 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Career | — | 44 | 127 | 11.5 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
Redshirted 2015. Seasons sum to the career line of 127 tackles, 22 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks across 44 games and 33 starts. Also blocked four kicks, including two as a senior. Season tackle and sack figures follow the North Carolina and Wikipedia season splits, which reconcile with the career totals.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Long, high-effort Day 3 lineman who bounced around as a depth body.
Versatile base end who holds up in the run game and rotates inside on passing downs.
Tweener defensive lineman without a signature trait who never stuck on a 53-man roster.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The NFL career never got off the ground. Strowbridge appeared in eight games as a rookie in 2020 and was inactive for eight more, finishing with three tackles and no starts. Miami waived him at the end of the 2021 preseason and signed him back to the practice squad in September, where he spent the season without playing a regular season snap. He did not appear in another NFL game, and by 2023 he had moved into business development and then personal training in Raleigh. Three career tackles is the whole professional ledger for a fifth-round pick.
In hindsight the flags on the evaluation were the right ones. The tools were legitimate, the effort was never questioned and the alignment versatility was real, but there was never a single dominant trait to build a role around. Day 3 defensive linemen without a pass-rush skill live on the roster bubble, and Miami churned its defensive front hard in those years. It was a reasonable pick that produced nothing, which is what a miss at 154 looks like.