BigAl2526 Posted March 30 Posted March 30 3 hours ago, Fan in Chicago said: Which brings up the question of who will be taking his snaps. As much flak as Epenesa gets, he was fine as a role player to fill out the DE room. He was drafted to be an impact player but didnt turn out to be that way. But he has been fairly durable and makes the occasional impactful play. Pretty much what one would expect to get from a role player. The health issue is a concern now. If it is something minor, then we should consider bringing him back for a lower price than what the Browns were going to pay him. For his sake, I hope the health thing is not anything major. If Hoecht is healthy, he will get snaps, especially later in the season as his achilles gains strength. A day 1 or 2 draft pick at edge is highly likely and the Bills will want him to take rotational snaps at the very least. 1 Quote
billsfan714 Posted March 30 Posted March 30 If you enjoy hearing if we only could have got Mahomes on the ground or if we could have got to Bo Nix in the playoffs, then my all means re-sign AJE. 1 Quote
SoonerBillsFan Posted March 30 Posted March 30 1 hour ago, BigAl2526 said: If Hoecht is healthy, he will get snaps, especially later in the season as his achilles gains strength. A day 1 or 2 draft pick at edge is highly likely and the Bills will want him to take rotational snaps at the very least. If he is healthy, there is our first option at ILB. He is literally the "position less" guy Beane was talking about. 265 ish can cover, rush the passer and defend the run. Quote
BarleyNY Posted March 30 Posted March 30 5 hours ago, Fan in Chicago said: Which brings up the question of who will be taking his snaps. As much flak as Epenesa gets, he was fine as a role player to fill out the DE room. He was drafted to be an impact player but didnt turn out to be that way. But he has been fairly durable and makes the occasional impactful play. Pretty much what one would expect to get from a role player. The health issue is a concern now. If it is something minor, then we should consider bringing him back for a lower price than what the Browns were going to pay him. For his sake, I hope the health thing is not anything major. Yep. His issue here was where he was drafted, not that he couldn’t contribute. He just wasn’t worth close to the pick we used on him. I have not heard anything about what caused him to fail his physical, but the neck injury from the playoffs would be my first guess. I’d tread carefully there if that is the reason. If he isn’t on a roster he could be someone we could acquire during the season if we need to add a depth DE - assuming he heals up well. 1 Quote
BillsFanForever19 Posted March 30 Posted March 30 57 minutes ago, billsfan714 said: If you enjoy hearing if we only could have got Mahomes on the ground or if we could have got to Bo Nix in the playoffs, then my all means re-sign AJE. Epenesa wouldn't be any better than our 4th Edge Rusher off the bench - behind Bradley Chubb, Greg Rousseau, and Michael Hoecht. If you look around the league at the "quality" of most teams 4th Edge Rusher, AJ Epenesa is grossly overqualified for that. That's generally a Javon Solomon type player (or less than that) that's generally known more for Special Teams. 1 2 Quote
BarleyNY Posted March 30 Posted March 30 55 minutes ago, BillsFanForever19 said: Epenesa wouldn't be any better than our 4th Edge Rusher off the bench - behind Bradley Chubb, Greg Rousseau, and Michael Hoecht. If you look around the league at the "quality" of most teams 4th Edge Rusher, AJ Epenesa is grossly overqualified for that. That's generally a Javon Solomon type player (or less than that) that's generally known more for Special Teams. Epenesa would’ve been the Bills 4th DE last season if Hoecht had stayed healthy after he got back from suspension. And in Cleveland he’d have been their DE4 had he passed his physical. I’m not saying that he wouldn’t be DE3 on some teams, but most teams would want more pass rush from their first DE off the bench. 1 1 Quote
Ed_Formerly_of_Roch Posted March 31 Posted March 31 23 hours ago, papazoid said: all the bills would ever say publicly is that the draft "final say" was a "collaborative effort" ....(a non answer) and yet Pegula just made it perfectly clear that as recently as the Coleman draft, the GM yielded to the coaching staff wishes. pretty clear to me that McDermott had final say and was the primary reason he was ousted I'm not it was the primary reason for his departure, but likely was a contributing factor Quote
Ridgewaycynic2013 Posted March 31 Posted March 31 I told you a lot of Bills personnel are from the Island of Misfit Players! Quote
Alphadawg7 Posted April 1 Posted April 1 (edited) On 3/30/2026 at 12:08 PM, BarleyNY said: Yep. His issue here was where he was drafted, not that he couldn’t contribute. He just wasn’t worth close to the pick we used on him. I have not heard anything about what caused him to fail his physical, but the neck injury from the playoffs would be my first guess. I’d tread carefully there if that is the reason. If he isn’t on a roster he could be someone we could acquire during the season if we need to add a depth DE - assuming he heals up well. There was no issue where he was drafted. He was often a projected first round pick in most mocks, AJE was seen as great value when we got him. He hasn't quite lived up to the level he was drafted, but on draft night he was great value at where we got him. But thats the nature of the draft - some guys meet or exceed expectations, others dont quite reach those expecations of bust out all together. But on draft night, he was a good value pick at where we got him as pretty much all projections and mocks had him gone before pick and often in the first. Edited April 1 by Alphadawg7 1 Quote
Sierra Foothills Posted April 1 Posted April 1 1 hour ago, Alphadawg7 said: There was no issue where he was drafted. He was often a projected first round pick in most mocks, AJE was seen as great value when we got him. He hasn't quite lived up to the level he was drafted, but on draft night he was great value at where we got him. But thats the nature of the draft - some guys meet or exceed expectations, others dont quite reach those expecations of bust out all together. But on draft night, he was a good value pick at where we got him as pretty much all projections and mocks had him gone before pick and often in the first. Correct. For the 22nd pick of the 2nd round he was considered a solid value. 1 2 Quote
Captain Hindsight Posted April 1 Posted April 1 15 minutes ago, Sierra Foothills said: Correct. For the 22nd pick of the 2nd round he was considered a solid value. Yeah I’m not sure why people always expected him to be more than a solid rotational DE, which he was. 2 1 Quote
BarleyNY Posted April 1 Posted April 1 7 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said: There was no issue where he was drafted. He was often a projected first round pick in most mocks, AJE was seen as great value when we got him. He hasn't quite lived up to the level he was drafted, but on draft night he was great value at where we got him. But thats the nature of the draft - some guys meet or exceed expectations, others dont quite reach those expecations of bust out all together. But on draft night, he was a good value pick at where we got him as pretty much all projections and mocks had him gone before pick and often in the first. No, not on draft day. He was projected to be a second or third round pick and he went 54. My point was that in Buffalo he was always going to be a player who didn’t live up to that pick. The problem was that the Bills took a player at 54 that they needed to change his whole body type. You don’t do that with a second round pick. He’d have been much better off as a player if he had gone to a 3-4 team and played DE there. 1 Quote
NoSaint Posted April 1 Posted April 1 (edited) 7 hours ago, Captain Hindsight said: Yeah I’m not sure why people always expected him to be more than a solid rotational DE, which he was. I think the lesson learned is when a healthy and high character guy at an ultra premium position “slides” from mocks in the mid first to actual availability in the late second - his on field play probably wasn’t that of the mid first. But also I think he was average to low average for a DE in the second. Not a bust but not an impact guy. To win rings you hope to maybe see more of those round two picks maybe push towards a little better than average outcomes. In short - came with modestly high expectations, fair or not, and was just ok. Edited April 1 by NoSaint Quote
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