Buffalo Bills: AJ Epenesa should be primed for 2021 breakout
It’s safe to say the 2020 season was probably a bit overwhelming for Buffalo Bills‘ second-round pick AJ Epenesa. A former five-star prospect at Iowa who was pretty much as-advertised his entire college career, Epenesa struggled to open up his rookie campaign in Buffalo and when you hear some of the things he was asked to do, it’s not hard to see why.
Not only did Epenesa arrive in Buffalo during a pandemic-affected season, but the team apparently asked him to cut a bunch of weight in addition to learning their defensive scheme.
Epenesa ended up cutting too much weight and struggled to acclimate himself early on before getting some more snaps down the final stretch of the season.
Even after notching his first sack within his first two NFL games, Epenesa was effectively benched in week 8 but got back on track a few weeks later. Though he played roughly 27 percent of the team’s snaps over the course of the season, he ended up being a 35-40 percent player over the final nine games of the Buffalo Bills‘ 2020 campaign including the playoffs.
Entering his second season, Epenesa is facing some stiff competition as he has worked to get his weight back up and body composition in the spot the Buffalo Bills want it to be.
He’s already made some significant waves at Bills OTAs.
We had one of our first skirmishes of OTAs. AJ Epenesa picked off Allen at the line & ran the ball back into the end zone. Jon Feliciano took exception & chased Epenesa down. Looked like Epenesa then threw ball towards Feliciano & then a few punches were thrown.
— Matthew Bové (@Matt_Bove) June 8, 2021
Although the piece of that bit of news that stands out to most is that punches were thrown and tempers flared, the part about Epenesa picking off Josh Allen at the line of scrimmage.
After checking into the Scouting Combine last year at 275 pounds, the Buffalo Bills obviously envision Epenesa playing somewhere closer to 260 pounds.
The Bills asked AJ Epenesa to get his body weight down. He got it way down and even a bit lighter than they wanted. Beane said started slow and they were concerned how he'd hold up against the run. He added a bit, but "couldn't move the needle." He was 280 at Iowa, 260 for Bills
— Sal Capaccio 🏈 (@SalSports) January 27, 2021
At Iowa, Epenesa was able to rely on his natural physical gifts and talents to dominate the opposition. Of course, there were some stretches of time where he wouldn’t be making the type of impact on the game Hawkeyes fans had grown accustomed to over the course of his first two seasons with the team when he was more of a part-time player.
Now with first- and second-round picks in the 2021 NFL Draft Gregory Rousseau and Carlos Basham Jr. coming in for even more competition, Epenesa is going to have to prove himself worthy of an increased role in year two with Buffalo.
He had to drop weight to become more explosive off the edge and utilize more than just raw power and effort to get to the quarterback.
Having had the opportunity to drink through the fire hose in his rookie NFL season, things will hopefully slow down a bit in year two for Epenesa as he is able to focus less on his playing weight and more on his craft as a player.
Along with that, I think we’ll almost undoubtedly see a breakout sophomore campaign with as much talent as surrounds him on the Buffalo Bills defensive line.