The Bills made defensive end A.J. Epenesa their top draft pick this year, but they aren’t planning for him to be in a major role right off the bat as a rookie.
Bills head coach Sean McDermott was asked about the outlook for Epenesa during an appearance on former Bills center Eric Wood’s podcast and pointed to the more experienced players that the Bills have on hand at the position. Jerry Hughes, Mario Addison and Trent Murphy make up that group and McDermott suggested Epenesa will do more watching than doing as long as those players remain available.
“In a perfect world, he’ll play a backup position the first season potentially to move inside on rush situations,” McDermott said, via Syracuse.com. “That’s asking a lot at this point because, learning as you know, learning two positions just in your first season and adjusting all the while to life in the NFL is a challenge so we’ll just focus on one position for now, but the more he can do the better for us and for his future.”
The perfect world and the real world can wind up bearing little resemblance to each other, so Epenesa may be pressed into duty earlier than McDermott might like. Getting him ready for that possibility will be one of many tasks for the Bills to deal with this summer.
