Buffalo Rumblings
The Buffalo Bills are going to have a rough time determining a rotation for their defensive ends this season. It’s quite likely that they’ll have six players on the roster at the position at some point this year, and while math isn’t exactly my strong suit, there are only two defensive ends on the field at once on most plays.
Luckily for the players who play the defensive edge, the Bills rotate their defensive line heavily. That means that each player who dresses on game day is likely to see some time on the field at some point. With quite a few players on board who have a history of injury issues, it’s possible that the Bills could find themselves in a situation where their lineup is forced rather than chosen. With that in mind, it’s a good thing that they have as many players with starting experience as they do.
In our latest edition of “90 players in 90 days,” we discuss a defensive end coming off the first fully healthy season of his professional career.
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Name: A.J. Epenesa
Number: 57
Position: DE
Height/Weight: 6’6”, 260 pounds
Age: 26 (27 on 9/15/2025)
Experience/Draft: 6; 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 enters the final year of the two-year, $12 million extension he signed prior to last season. For the year, his cap hit is $7.487 million. If the Bills were to release him, they would be on the hook for a dead-cap charge of $10.008 million.
2024 Recap: Epenesa played a full 17-game slate for the first time in his professional career, yet his production remained essentially on par with what has been his norm throughout. While he doubled his career-high in total tackles, notching 39 combined, he maintained his streak of hitting exactly six sacks in the season. Well, it was close, anyway — he had 6.5 sacks in the 2022 and 2023 seasons — but he’s been a six-sacks-per-season player over the last few years. He added eight tackles for loss and 11 quarterback hits, both career-highs. He also notched two pass breakups and two forced fumbles on the season.
Epenesa started 13 games, too, which was easily a high-water mark for him in his career. During the playoffs, he started all three of Buffalo’s games. He totaled eight tackles, two tackles for loss, and one quarterback hit. In the regular season, he played on a career-high 55% of the Bills’ defensive snaps. In the postseason, that number increased a bit, as he appeared on 59% of the team’s total snaps on defense. Both of those numbers would likely have been higher, but he sat for most of the regular-season finale against the New England Patriots since the game’s outcome had no bearing on the team’s playoff standing, and he also sat nearly 60% of the team’s blowout victory over the Denver Broncos in the Wild Card...
