Earlier this month, the Browns agreed to terms with defensive end A.J. Epenesa on a one-year deal worth up to $5 million. The contract will not be signed.
Via Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN, the Browns decided not to proceed. Specifically, they weren’t “comfortable finalizing the deal after his physical.”
It’s a somewhat tame way of saying Epenesa failed the physical, and it’s no different than the decision the Ravens made regarding defensive end Maxx Crosby. Other teams have, on plenty of occasions, made the same decision.
The development comes 11 days after word of the deal first emerged. During that time, Epenesa could have agreed to terms with another team, one that may have been comfortable with whatever caused the Browns not to proceed.
Now, the 2020 second-round pick of the Bills will revert to the open market.
In six NFL seasons, all in Buffalo, Epenesa has appeared in 91 regular-season games, with 19 starts. He has 24 career sacks.
Bills Clips
The 49ers hope to have Nick Bosa back in action during training camp, but it doesn’t sound like anyone should bank on him sharing a locker room with his brother.
Joey Bosa remains a free agent and the mother of both pass rushers recently posted a fabricated image of the two brothers next to each other in 49ers uniforms on social media. On Sunday, General Manager John Lynch said he was aware of the post but isn’t sure there’s a way to work out a family reunion.
“I know Mama Bosa would love that, but I don’t know if we can afford him,” Lynch said, via Matt Barrows of TheAthletic.com.
Joey Bosa is one of the top remaining unsigned players on PFT’s list of this year’s top free agents. He had 29 tackles, five sacks and five forced fumbles for the Bills in 2025.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen has no lingering effects from the foot surgery he had two months ago.
Allen needed the procedure to repair a broken bone in his right foot, but Bills head coach Joe Brady says Allen is ready to do everything asked of him when the Bills start their offseason program on April 6.
“He’s good to go,” Brady told Tom Pelissero of NFL Network. “The thing about Josh Allen, he got surgery after the season, but he’s playing as if you think there’s nothing wrong with him. The guy could barely walk, and then he’s playing games and it’s not impacting [his play]. He’s built different. And let’s hope it continues that way, but he’ll be good to go in the offseason. I talk with him regularly. He’s just excited to get going with guys like DJ Moore, kind of figure out what it’s going to look like, just this new kind of era.”
Allen has been one of the best players in the NFL for years, and he’s the betting favorite to win league MVP this year. But the inability to get to the Super Bowl with Allen ultimately cost former Bills head coach Sean McDermott his job, and resulted in Brady getting promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach.
Brady knows he was hired to win a championship with Allen. And he’s starting his first head-coaching job with a healthy Allen leading the team.
Safety Damar Hamlin is staying in Buffalo.
The Bills announced on Friday that they have re-signed Hamlin to a one-year deal. It’s the second straight offseason that has seen Hamlin opt for a new one-year deal with the team that drafted him in the sixth round in 2021.
Hamlin’s 2025 season was cut short by a pectoral injury that landed him on injured reserve after five games. Hamlin was a reserve in those appearances after serving as a starter in the secondary during the 2024 season.
Hamlin was also a starter in December 2022 when he went into cardiac arrest during a game against the Bengals. Hamlin’s heartbeat was restored by medical personnel on the field and he was later determined to have suffered commotio cardis, a condition that occurs when the cardiac rhythm is interrupted by a severe blow to the chest.
Hamlin was able to return to play five games during the 2023 season and will now begin preparations for his sixth season on the Buffalo defense.
The Bills made three additions to their 2026 roster on Thursday.
The team announced it signed center Lloyd Cushenberry III, wide receiver Trent Sherfield Sr. and center/guard Austin Corbett to one-year contracts.
Cushenberry’s last stop was a two-year stint with the Titans, where he started every game he appeared in (23) at center.
He began his career with the Broncos as a third-round draft pick in 2020, and he spent four seasons in Denver. He started 57 games for the Broncos.
Sherfield previously played for Buffalo in 2023.
In his first stint with the Bills, Sherfield made 11 catches for 86 yards and one touchdown.
Sherfield spent the 2025 season with the Broncos and on the practice squads of the Cardinals and Patriots. In 10 games and three starts with the Broncos, he caught three passes for 21 yards.
He started his career with the Cardinals in 2018, signing as an undrafted free agent.
Sherfield has also spent time with the 49ers, Dolphins and Vikings.
Corbett, who visited the Bills on Monday, spent the past four seasons with the Panthers.
He played all 17 games in 2022, his first season in Carolina, but missed 29 of a possible 51 games over the past three seasons.
The Browns made him a second-round pick in 2018, and he played 14 games before Cleveland traded him to the Rams during the 2019 season.
In his career, Corbett has appeared in 94 games with 78 starts.
The Bills will be back on top in the AFC East this year, if the betting odds are to be believed.
Buffalo is a -145 favorite to win the AFC East. That makes the Bills the heaviest favorites to win a division of any NFL team.
New England is next at +150, while the other two teams in the division are long shots: The Jets are at +1800 and the Dolphins at +2800.
The Patriots engineered a major turnaround under first-year coach Mike Vrabel and young quarterback Drake Maye last season, winning the AFC East and then winning the AFC Championship. They look like a team that could be in contention for years to come.
But the Bills had won the AFC East five years in a row prior to last year, and the odds suggest that with Josh Allen playing in first-year head coach Joe Brady’s offense, they’ll get back on top.
The Eagles are signing free agent wide receiver Elijah Moore to a one-year deal, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports.
Moore, who turns 26 this week, spent last season with the Bills and Broncos.
He played nine games with two starts in Buffalo, making nine catches for 112 yards, before the team released him Nov. 26. Moore joined the Broncos, who elevated him from the practice squad for the AFC Championship Game, where he caught one pass for 4 yards.
The Jets made him a second-round pick in 2021, and he spent two seasons in New York before two seasons with the Browns.
In his career, Moore has 209 receptions for 2,274 yards and nine touchdowns.
Free agent center Austin Corbett visited the Bills on Monday, according to the NFL’s transactions report.
Corbett, 30, spent the past four seasons with the Panthers, who replaced him in free agency by signing Luke Fortner.
He played all 17 games in 2022, his first season in Carolina, but missed 29 of a possible 51 games over the past three seasons.
The Browns made him a second-round pick in 2018, and he played 14 games before Cleveland traded him to the Rams during the 2019 season.
In his career, Corbett has appeared in 94 games with 78 starts.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame will honor three former assistant coaches with the Awards of Excellence. The Hall announced Monday that Mike Westhoff, Bobb McKittrick and Ted Cottrell will make up the Class of 2026.
This is the fifth class for the Awards of Excellence, with 17 assistant coaches honored in that time.
Westhoff coached in the NFL for 33 seasons, the majority of his career spent as the special teams coach of the Dolphins and Jets.
McKittrick spent 21 seasons as the offensive line coach for the 49ers and is one of four coaches who was with the team for all five of the franchise’s Super Bowl titles. Bill Walsh hired McKittrick in 1979.
Cottrell worked for six franchises over 24 seasons and is viewed as an innovator of the 3-4 defense. He helped develop several Hall of Famers, including Bruce Smith with the Bills.
The Hall previously announced winners in three other categories with Scott Berchtold, Jim Gallagher and Lee Remmel picked as public relations directors; Red Batty; Mike Davidson and Jack Noel as equipment managers; and Edward “Abe” Abramoski, Kent Falb and Michael Ryan in the athletic trainers category.
The Hall will announce winners in film and video directors category.
The ceremony honoring the Awards of Excellence winners will take place June 24-25 in Canton.
Ryan Van Denmark will be off to Minnesota.
The Bills have declined to match the offer sheet Van Denmark signed with the Vikings as a restricted free agent, according to a report from NFL Media.
With Buffalo tendering Van Denmark at the original-round level, the club will not receive any compensation for the offensive lineman’s departure.
Van Denmark’s deal with Minnesota is reportedly for one year and worth $4.3 million. Had he played on the original-round tender with Buffalo, Van Denmark would have made $3.52 million in 2026.
Van Denmark appeared in 43 games with six starts for Buffalo over the last three seasons. He appeared in all 17 regular-season contests for the Bills in 2025, playing 28 percent of offensive snaps and 17 percent of special teams snaps.
