A.J. Epenesa has back-to-back 6.5 sack season. Some fans want him to return of the Bills 2024 season, while others aren't interested. Epenesa is an interesting player though. He shows up in flashes and makes some amazing plays in games, which tends to come in bunches; however, I look at him as the Gabe Davis on the defense. He shines for one week, then disappears for a couple, The Bills need more consistency from him at this point of his career.
Epenesa is only 25 years old and per Spotrac.com, his market value is estimated at $5.6 million annual average. Both of those reasons are good enough for me that I would welcome him back. If another team decides to over-pay him, then so be it. If Buffalo can bring him back for around $5 million, let's get it done. With the Bills having so many defensive free agents, particularly along the defensive line, I think it's important Buffalo try to retain some of their younger players, such as Epenesa.
If you look at the stats from Pro Football Focus, they have Epenesa with seven sacks on the season but keep in mind that PFF does not count half-sacks. However, I like to use PFF for other stats, such as pressures, hurries, and numbers like that. With Epenesa, he logged a total of 380 snaps. In those snaps, he recorded 29 pressures, including 6.5 sacks, 18 hurries, and four quarterback hits. He also had a forced fumble, one fumble recovery, and two interceptions. If he was a larger part of the defensive rotation, he could probably improve on those numbers.
Epenesa earned a PFF grade of 80.3 overall; however, he only earned 59.8 on run defense. He certainly needs to improve on his run defense if he wants to earn more snaps next season. That said, given the cap restrictions the Bills will have to deal with, they may have to rely on Epenesa more next season, which is another reason I believe they need to try to re-sign him for the 2024 NFL season.