The fifth-year man looks to continue his upward trajectory this season
The Buffalo Bills generally run four-deep in their defensive end rotation. Sometimes, they’ll involve a fifth player but, generally speaking, there are four players who will take the snaps along the edge. That means that the starters and their reserves are both important, as head coach Sean McDermott likes to rotate his pass-rushers so that they stay fresh.
McDermott will not only rotate those players from game to game, but he’ll also rotate them heavily throughout the season. What I mean by that is, if a game is more competitive or against higher-level competition, he may choose to deploy the reserves less than he would in a game the Bills have well in hand. So, while the third and fourth defensive end may see a healthy amount of snaps over the course of a season, they may see less time against better teams.
This is all to say that the starter’s designation is still a big deal even if the Bills rotate their defensive ends more than many teams. In today’s installment of our “91 players in 91 days” series, we’ll discuss one of the edge rushers fighting to be a starter.
A.J. Epenesa
- Number: 57
- Position: DE
- Height/Weight: 6’6”, 260 pounds
- Age: 25 (26 on 9/15/2024)
- Experience/Draft: 5; selected by Buffalo in the second round (No. 54 overall) of the 2020 NFL Draft
- College: Iowa
- Acquired: Second-round draft choice
Financial situation (per Spotrac): Epenesa signed a two-year contract this offseason following the expiration of his rookie deal. His new contract is worth $12 million with $10.06 million in guarantees. In 2024, Epenesa carries a $3.96 million cap hit, and if Buffalo were to release him, they would carry a dead-cap charge of $6.56 million.
2023 Recap: Coming off a career year in 2022, Epenesa was under some pressure to build on that success. And build on it he did, tying his career-high in sacks (6.5), tackles for loss (7), and quarterback hits (10). He also added the first two interceptions of his career. One came against Sam Howell, which Epenesa returned for a touchdown in Buffalo’s 37-3 blowout win over the Washington Commanders. The other came against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in Buffalo’s 20-17 win at Arrowhead Stadium. Epenesa injured his ribs on that interception, however, and he missed the Bills’ next two games as a result. Epenesa also set a career-high with eight passes defended. He returned in time for the playoffs, notching just one tackle, which went for a loss, and a quarterback hit in Buffalo’s two playoff games. He only played 50% of the defensive snaps in three games: once against the Jacksonville Jaguars (67%, his only start of the year), once at the New England Patriots (53%), and once against the Chiefs in the playoffs (50%).
Positional outlook: Epenesa is one of 10 edge players, including eight traditional defensive ends, vying for roster space. Von Miller and Javon Solomon are listed at linebacker and EDGE, respectively, but they play defensive end in Buffalo’s defense. David Ugwoegbu is listed at DL, but he’s a defensive end. Rondell Bothroyd, Casey Toohill, Dawuane Smoot, Greg Rousseau, Kingsley Jonathan, and Kameron Cline are the other defensive ends on the roster.
2024 Offseason: Epenesa is healthy and has participated in all offseason work. He’s been with the starting unit thus far in training camp.
2024 Season outlook: Unless something strange happens, I think Epenesa will see the starter’s snaps at right end, with Greg Rousseau starting at left end. Against certain teams or certain alignments, it’s possible that someone like Dawuane Smoot earns the official “starter’s” nod, but I think that it will be Rousseau and Epenesa leading the way in edge snaps unless one of the two of them is injured. Miller and Smoot are my guesses as third and fourth, with Solomon vying for a roster spot as the fifth guy who plays only on obvious passing downs.
Epenesa has missed at least two games in each of his professional seasons so far, however, so penciling him in as a starter for 17 games isn’t a bet I’m looking to make right now. He needs to stay healthy and show that he can be a consistent force in order to earn that time.
So far, he’s not been able to stay healthy consistently, and he’s also been a player who has a huge game before disappearing for weeks on end. The Bills need him to be more than that this season, and given the flashes we’ve seen over the last few years, I’m hopeful that he can be that.
The injury piece is what concerns me most. If he’s healthy, Epenesa should play half the defensive snaps for the first time in his career. If he does, we might see him hit double-figures in sacks for the first time, as well.