Free agent defensive end A.J. Epenesa is signing a one-year deal worth up to $5 million with the Browns, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.
Epenesa, 27, has spent his entire career in Buffalo since the Bills made him a second-round pick in 2020.
In 2025, he played 16 games with two starts and totaled 32 tackles, 2.5 sacks, nine quarterback hits, two interceptions and four passes defensed.
In his career, Epenesa has recorded 135 tackles, 24 sacks, 53 quarterback hits, four interceptions, 21 passes defensed and five forced fumbles.
The Browns are also signing wide receiver/returner Tylan Wallace, Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com reports.
Wallace, who turns 27 in May, is following Todd Monken from Baltimore after spending his career with the Ravens.
A fourth-round pick in 2021, Wallace played 14 games with two starts last season. He caught four passes for 45 yards and a touchdown and averaged 24.6 yards on five kickoff returns.
He has only 22 receptions for 305 yards and two touchdowns in five seasons, with one punt return touchdown.
The Bills reacted to their latest failure to get over the hump in the playoffs by firing head coach Sean McDermott and their bid to finally break through has also included moves to bring in players like edge rusher Bradley Chubb, wide receiver DJ Moore and safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
All three players have a track record of success in the NFL, but Gardner-Johnson is the only member of the trio who brings a Super Bowl ring with him to Buffalo. Gardner-Johnson was on the Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX winners a couple of years ago and he believes that experience will be valuable to the Bills as they try for the first title in franchise history.
“Having champions around, not necessarily being older guys, [but] having a champion around really means something,” Gardner-Johnson said, via the team’s website. “It gravitated [people to] you . . . bringing that experience in the room and when people ask, ‘How does it feel?’ We have that background to tell them and actually know what it takes to get to that level.”
Gardner-Johnson has bounced around the league often during his eight years in the NFL and he carries a reputation for being difficult to get along with at times, but odds are that he’ll be a popular fellow in Buffalo if he can push the Bills to heights they haven’t been able to reach during the Josh Allen era.
The Vikings have signed Bills restricted free agent Ryan Van Demark to an offer sheet. The Bills have five days to match what KSTP reports is a one-year, $4.3 million deal.
The original-round tender on the former undrafted free agent was $3.52 million.
The Bills will not receive compensation if they decline to match Minnesota’s offer.
Van Demark, who turns 28 this month, played 154 snaps at right tackle and 43 at left tackle in 17 games last season, with four starts.
In three seasons, he saw action in 43 games with six starts.
In Minnesota, Van Demark would serve as a swing tackle behind left tackle Christian Darrisaw and right tackle Brian O’Neill.
The Bills have some more cap room to work with after restructuring wide receiver DJ Moore’s contract.
Moore had $22.185 million of his salary for the 2026 season converted to a signing bonus. The money cleared more than $17.7 million from the team’s cap for the coming season.
Buffalo acquired Moore in a trade with the Bears this month.
The remainder of the cap hit was shifted into the next three years of Moore’s contract as well as a void year after the end of the contract. Per Over the Cap, Moore is now set to have cap numbers of $29.837 million in 2027, 2028 and 2029.
Moore has salaries of $23.485 million in those seasons with $15.5 million of his 2027 salary standing as the only remaining guaranteed money in the pact.
Cornerback Darius Slay said recently that no team other than the Eagles should call him about playing in 2026, but now it seems that even the Eagles shouldn’t bother reaching out to him.
In a post to X.com on Monday, Slay announced that he is retiring from the NFL. Slay wrote that he has reached the time for a “new chapter” and that he’s “ready to turn the page” on an NFL career that began as a Lions second-round pick in 2013.
Slay remained with the Lions through the 2019 season and made an All-Pro team before moving on to the Eagles in a trade in 2020. He helped the Eagles to an NFC title after the 2022 season and won a Super Bowl in his final game with the team.
Slay signed a one-year deal with the Steelers in 2025, but was waived by a mutual agreement in December. He was claimed off of waivers by the Bills and declined to report amid speculation that he hoped to return to the Eagles.
Slay had 655 tackles, 28 interceptions, two forced fumbles, six fumble recoveries and six touchdowns over the course of his career.
