JJ Faulk is the next name Auburn fans need to file away.
The 6-foot-3, 260-pound edge rusher from Highland Home, Alabama, is coming off a redshirt season and now has a real chance to carve out playing time this fall. With older brother Keldric Faulk having gone in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft and signing a million-dollar deal with the Tennessee Titans, JJ is stepping into the spotlight at Auburn.
New edge coach Coleman Hutzler has already made a strong impression on him. Auburn’s spring work left Hutzler sounding optimistic about what Faulk can become on the edge after making the move from linebacker.
“JJ has been awesome and he’s a guy that kind of made that transition from linebacker to playing on the edge. And his combination of athleticism and the skill set that he’s going to bring to the position is exciting,” Hutzler said this past spring.
“Every guy’s got things they got to work on. He knows what those are, the maturity of identifying, ‘Hey, I got to get better at this.’
Those have been great conversations with him. And so excited to see what he brings.”
That relationship mattered in Faulk’s decision to stay at Auburn after Keldric headed to the NFL. Faulk said Hutzler played a major role in bringing him back.
“He was a pretty big part of my decision to come back, and just to have him as my position coach, I am not going to lie, it’s great,” Faulk said. “You get to learn the knowledge that he had from previous schools, and then he’s bringing it to us, and he’s installing it in us, and we’ve just got to learn off that.
“Last year, just learning the attention to detail and the urgency in walkthroughs. I learned that from my brother and Keyron (Crawford). They go hard like its practice, and you just got to play every down like it’s your last, no matter what it is.”
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