Epenesa, a hand-in-the-dirt defensive end with Buffalo who recorded 24 sacks, four interceptions, and 135 quarterback pressures playing in the Bills’ defensive line rotation, transitions to an outside linebacker role here.\u00a0He’s\u00a0an edge player here, so he is going to line up and\u00a0get after\u00a0the quarterback, set the edge against the run, and, yes, drop into coverage.<\/p>\n
It’s\u00a0a bit of a new role, but that is the nature of the sport, of\u00a0the defense.<\/p>\n
“I love him,” Epenesa said. “One of the\u00a0best the game\u00a0has ever seen. The defenses\u00a0he’s\u00a0had,\u00a0I think the results\u00a0speak for themselves.\u00a0It’s\u00a0fun learning all of that and learning more about my game and what I can do.”<\/p>\n
So far, so good for Epenesa.\u00a0He’s\u00a0been active, physical, and playing with the non-stop motor that he says marks his game. If you need to know one thing about Epenesa,\u00a0it’s\u00a0this: He is going to go full speed all the time every day.<\/p>\n
“I am the guy that everyone knows has a chip on his shoulder,” Epenesa said. “I want people to know that ‘He’s\u00a0pissed off about something. He wants to make a point. And he wants to make it loud and clear.’\u00a0That’s\u00a0what I want everyone to see when\u00a0I’m\u00a0on the field.\u00a0I’m\u00a0going\u00a0hard.\u00a0That’s\u00a0not going to change.<\/p>\n
“I’m\u00a0learning as much as possible as fast as I can. It is a change positionally for me, so I\u00a0have to\u00a0be on my game mentally and it is a great challenge.\u00a0I’m\u00a0not\u00a0gonna\u00a0lie about that.\u00a0It’s\u00a0a challenge.”<\/p>\n
This much is clear for Epenesa, who brings his demeanor and his skill set to an edge room that has a lot of ability and depth: He has something to prove. He wants it, and he wants it badly. He is here as a Philadelphia Eagle \u2013 a new team, a new role, and the mindset of proving himself all over again.<\/p>\n
“Mitch Morse (former NFL center) said it best on his podcast (In Good Company with Mitch Morse): ‘Once you think you’ve got the NFL figured out, it kicks you in the (butt).’ Never try to be too comfortable and always be prepared.\u00a0That’s\u00a0how\u00a0I’ve\u00a0been trying to keep my mind lately, and\u00a0I’m\u00a0very happy\u00a0to be doing that here and giving it my all as a Philadelphia Eagle.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Epenesa, a hand-in-the-dirt defensive end with Buffalo who recorded 24 sacks, four interceptions, and 135 quarterback pressures playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":965811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2068],"tags":[10902,909,25,7,6,910,4206,242,109,2476],"class_list":["post-965810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-eagles","tag-a-j-epenesa","tag-all-news-archived","tag-eagles","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-com-feature","tag-on-the-inside","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-philadelphiaeagles"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117048752420768145","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965810","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=965810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}