{"id":842088,"date":"2026-03-30T01:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T01:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/842088\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T01:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T01:50:17","slug":"ex-bills-draft-pick-reportedly-not-heading-to-browns-even-after-agreed-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/842088\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Bills Draft Pick Reportedly Not Heading to Browns, Even After Agreed Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"780\" height=\"520\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2244690048.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"AJ Epenesa Stats\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Defensive end AJ Epenesa recorded 32 total tackles, 2.5 sacks, and 2 interceptions during the 2025 NFL season with the Buffalo Bills.<\/p>\n<p>The <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/buffalo-bills\/\" title=\"Buffalo Bills\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"208535\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Buffalo Bills<\/a> saw several of their players sign with new teams this offseason, but one player who was set to leave is now back on the open market.<\/p>\n<p>Browns Won\u2019t Be Signing A.J. Epenesa<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo\u2019s defensive end A.J. Epenesa reached an agreement with the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/cleveland-browns\/\" title=\"Cleveland Browns\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"208534\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cleveland Browns<\/a> a few weeks into free agency, <a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DanielOyefusi\/status\/2038415874131149228\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">but that deal<\/a> will no longer be happening after his physical.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Browns won\u2019t be signing DE A.J. Epenesa as was initially reported, per source, ESPN\u2019s Browns reporter Daniel Oyefusi wrote Sunday on X Team wasn\u2019t comfortable finalizing the deal after his physical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no indication of what the Browns found unappealing about Epenesa\u2019s physical, but could he return to the Bills?<\/p>\n<p>Should The Bills Look to Bring Epenesa Back<\/p>\n<p>The Bills selected Epenesa in the 2020 <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/\" title=\"NFL\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"208536\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NFL<\/a> Draft, and over the past six seasons in Buffalo, he recorded 24 sacks across 91 games.<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo likely hoped to get more out of Epenesa, but he never seemed to fully seize the opportunity as a starter. This is probably one reason why the team didn\u2019t look to bring him back this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Now that Epenesa is back on the market, would it be wise for the Bills to bring him back on a one-year deal? <\/p>\n<p>The Browns were set to sign Epenesa to a one-year, $5.7 million deal, but the plan for him to make that much money could be out the window after his recent physical.<\/p>\n<p>Different teams have different perspectives on how they evaluate a player\u2019s physicals; some prioritize physicals more, while others may not see it as a significant concern. This could work in Epenesa\u2019s favor if he ends up with a team that isn\u2019t bothered by his physical.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/dfish09\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Danny Fisher<\/a> Is a football journalist covering the Buffalo Bills for Heavy.com. He has covered the NFL for Gridiron Heroics, focusing on the AFC and Penn State football for Nittany Central.  <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/dfish09\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More about Danny Fisher<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Bills\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Defensive end AJ Epenesa recorded 32 total tackles, 2.5 sacks, and 2 interceptions during the 2025 NFL&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,2086,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-842088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-buffalobills","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116315622393498393","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}