Bills fans should be excited for the 2025 season seeing as all of the changes that the front office made in free agency and in the draft. The defense looks a lot different (both short-term and long-term) and the offense returns a majority of their starters along with new weapons like Joshua Palmer and Elijah Moore to the outside. Overall, this Bills team has the talent and finally has the depth to make a run at the Super Bowl and get past the conference title game.
One position that they have a lot of depth at is at edge rusher. Buffalo extended Greg Rousseau this offseason and brought in Joey Bosa to be their main edge rushers to start out the game. Then they will have a rotation with A.J. Epenesa, Javon Solomon, and rookie Landon Jackson.
Even though Sean McDermott and Bobby Babich utilize this heavy rotation every single game, sometimes they need to prioritize other positions on the field to make sure that there is enough depth. The good news for them is that their edge rushers should never have to be affected with roster moves on gameday.
While fans should be excited for what this room could do in terms of getting to the quarterback, there is one edge rusher that could be quietly entering his last season in Buffalo.
Bills' DE A.J. Epenesa is quietly entering his last season with Bills
Drafted in 2020 out of Iowa, A.J. Epenesa has improved his production over the last few seasons after a rough start to his career. Last season was the most he started (13 games) and has 19 sacks over the last three seasons in a rotational scheme. After getting a two-year extension going into last season, he now enters another contract year in 2025.
Epenesa is going to be battling for potentially a third contract with the Bills. However, he has an uphill battle. Rousseau is the hopeful future off the edge in Buffalo. Javon Solomon is on a rookie deal and has three more seasons left on it, and he also showed flashes of being a solid rotational edge rusher in Buffalo. Then you have the newest rookie in Landon Jackson who could become the successor to Joey Bosa (if Bosa doesn’t re-sign after 2025).
Unless Epenesa has double digit sacks and becomes a game-wrecker, it’s hard to imagine him coming back to Buffalo especially on another cheaper contract. He is quietly going into his potential last season with the Bills, but players going into a contract year tend to play well in hopes to get paid big before or during free agency.