NFL Draft
4/9/25
5 min read
Shaun Dolac 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For Buffalo Bulls LB
Height: 6002 (verified)
Weight: 221 (verified)
Year: Redshirt Senior
Pro Comparison: Matt Milano
Scouting Overview
Buffalo Bulls linebacker Shaun Dolac is an instinctive playmaker who has done well to maximize his abilities, thanks to excellent football IQ and underrated athleticism. He’s not a big linebacker, and his pro projection is muddied by his lack of length and lack of mass.
Still, there have been enough successful linebackers out of this mold as of late that suggest he’s got a puncher’s chance of fulfilling his potential at the pro level. That potential? A three-down starter. Dolac is tougher than his size and plays a frantic brand of football.
2025 NFL Combine Results
DNP
Positives
- Play by play tackle machine with a career missed tackle rate of 7.5%
- Productive middle-of-the-field zone defender with good eyes to drop into secondary throwing windows
- Loose hips and a low center of gravity make for fluid changes of direction in space
Negatives
- For being an undersized talent, he’s not the most explosive or twitchy player
- Played in just four games in 2023 before a season-ending injury and then finished 2024 with an elbow brace
- Will be a 24-year-old rookie in September while coming from the MAC
Background
Dolac is from West Seneca, NY, and played high school football at West Seneca East HS and Milford Academy. He was a two-way star at Milford, posting 157 tackles and rushing for 1,997 yards as a senior. Despite his production, he was underrecruited out of high school, needing to walk on with the Buffalo program to get his start in college football.
Dolac saw action in seven games during the 2020 season and was awarded a scholarship with the program prior to the following season. He collected his first career starts in the final two games of the 2021 season. He appeared in 12 games during that year before having his first big breakout campaign in 2022.
Dolac led the MAC in tackles (147) in 2022 and was named First Team All-MAC. An injury cost him all but four games of the following season in 2023 before his monster season in 2024.
Dolac became the program’s first Consensus All-American in 2024 while posting 168 tackles, 18.5 for loss, 6.5 sacks, five interceptions, and an additional five passes defensed. Despite his play, Dolac was not invited to the 2025 NFL Combine.
Tale Of The Tape
Dolac is a cerebral linebacker who has been the big fish in a small pond during his three-year run of terror through the MAC. There’s an obvious transition ahead of him, and he may not have the ideal traits to fit as a universal stack linebacker for every scheme.
However, his 2024 season showcased capable zone coverage work over the middle. Dolac offered good peripheral vision to feel routes crossing through his zone landmarks and enough mobility to flash and take away throwing windows.
He was disciplined with his eyes while plastering receivers and made additional plays on the football at the catch point. He lacks length and an explosive burst to jump throwing windows and will be more opponent error-oriented, but his anticipation of longer, developing routes in traffic could still yield opportunities.
As a run defender, Dolac offers Energizer Bunny effort and pursuit to the football. He’s the fastest-moving player on the field once the play declares, and he takes angles that allow him to hawk down ball carriers or otherwise press them out of bounds. Despite his size and lack of length, he was credited with a 5 percent missed tackle rate in 2024 and has success in the open field and at the line of scrimmage plugging gaps.
It is fair to question whether Dolac is properly suited for racing downhill against bigger ball carriers. His size will always be a natural barrier that he will need to circumvent with good form and proper hat placement.
Dolac will also need to ensure he’s adjusted his decision-making process regarding when to shoot gaps and attack downhill. When entering into the front, he is in danger of getting plastered to blocks and lacks the wingspan, reach, and block deconstruction ability to pull himself free.
He’s a sharp and fast decision-maker with confidence, but the point of no return on his rep fitting and shooting to run under blocks may be a threat if he can’t get home. These plays will hit faster and more intensely at the pro level.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Dolac projects as a scheme-specific developmental starter. He’s ideally a space player who thrives as an attacking defender when given the opportunity to use his vision and instincts.
He has enough athleticism to play zone and hit his landmarks. He’d be best served playing behind an aggressive front.
Grade: 71.50/100.00, Fifth Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
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