Buffalo Bills: Position battle at defensive end heating up

The battle at defensive end for roster spots appears to be heating up for the Buffalo Bills.

For most of camp, the discussion around position battles for the Buffalo Bills has been at wide receiver and the kicking specialists, which was decided on Thursday, but one battle that has flown a bit under the radar is at defensive end.

The assumption has been that Jerry Hughes, Mario Addison and A.J. Epenesa are locks to make the roster and this hasn’t changed. Trent Murphy looked to be a potential cut candidate because of the cap savings, over $8 million according to Spotrac, but at this point his roster spot seems pretty secure.

After these four though, the Bills have a battle between Bryan Cox Jr., Daryl Johnson and Mike Love that has ramped up based on media reports. It remains to be seen exactly how many defensive ends the team keeps on their 53-man roster but if they elect to keep five, this will be very interesting to watch over the next 10 days.

Mike Love has been with the Buffalo Bills the longest, joining the team as an undrafted free agent prior to the 2018 season. He spent most of the year on the practice squad but did play in three games and had five total tackles. He was placed on injured reserve prior to last season.

Daryl Johnson joined the Bills last year as the team’s seventh round draft pick and saw playing time early but that tapered off as the season went on. He played in all 16 games and had 15 total tackles and one sack.

The other person competing for that spot is Bryan Cox Jr., who signed as a free agent this offseason. However, he knows this defense well as he played for the Carolina Panthers from 2017 to 2018 and while he wasn’t coached by Sean McDermott, the defense the Panthers run is similar to what Buffalo does.

It has been Bryan Cox Jr. that has seemingly impressed the most and Sal Capaccio of WGR550 believes he has a potential shot of making the roster.

Now he did miss the scrimmage on Thursday, due to personal reasons, which could potential hurt his chances of making the roster. In his absence, Mike Love had an excellent day with two sacks according to Dan Fetes. The fact that it came against the starting offensive line makes this even more impressive.

It is worth watching over the next week and a half if the Buffalo Bills begin making roster moves, specifically at this position. Does the emergence of Mike Love and Bryan Cox Jr. give the team confidence to cut Trent Murphy for the cap savings? Do they keep five defensive ends? Does that mean they would cut their seventh round pick after one year?

There are plenty of questions outstanding because of the performance of some of these pass rushers in camp.