{"id":227844,"date":"2025-04-12T18:13:27","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T22:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=227844"},"modified":"2025-04-12T18:13:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T22:13:27","slug":"breaking-could-12-million-nfl-star-be-aj-epenesa-trade-bait-5-possible-fits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/04\/12\/breaking-could-12-million-nfl-star-be-aj-epenesa-trade-bait-5-possible-fits\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking: Could $12 Million NFL Star Be Trade Bait? – 3 Possible Fits"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Buffalo Bills might be in the position to trade defensive star AJ Epenesa<\/a> this offseason, as they made several moves this offseason. According to a report<\/a>, the source believes the Bills could be moving away from Epenesa since the team has been improving its pass-rushing unit, including signing Joey Bosa<\/a> and extending Greg Rousseau. With that, the team might not have money left in their cap space, so that could likely signal the Bills would be better off trading him now to get some draft capital in return. It’ll be interesting to see what the team winds up doing since there are a lot of valuable edge rushers in this year’s draft.<\/p>\n

It’s something to watch for the Bills to see if they’re open to trading Epenesa. Originally selected in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft, the former Iowa spent his entire career with the Buffalo Bills, becoming a warhog in his sophomore campaign following a slow rookie season. After drafting Rosseau, Epenesa kept getting each season, posting 6.5 sacks, 10 quarterback hits, 14 quarterback pressures, 16 total tackles and five passes deflected in 2022. Epenesa isn’t the only defensive star that may be on the trade block, but linebacker Matt Milano<\/a> could be in a different uniform after this year’s draft, too.<\/p>\n

While Epenesa did sign a two-year contract extension before the 2024 campaign, it doesn’t guarantee him safety in job security. Entering another season, Epenesa is still young and could find a new team if the Bills trade him to fortify his talents with these three teams.<\/p>\n

Breaking: Could $12 Million NFL Star AJ Epenesa Be Trade Bait? – 3 Possible Fits<\/h2>\n

Potential Destinations<\/h3>\n

Carolina Panthers<\/h4>\n

Things are coming together for the Carolina Panthers, even though the team is nowhere near a postseason contention. Last season, they spent the majority of the offseason rebuilding an offense for quarterback Bryce Young, drafting Xavier Legette<\/a> and Jalen Coker. The plan now for the team is to continue to bolster their defensive unit, which they’ve already been doing this offseason, signing Tershawn Wharton to finally give some insurance for Derrick Brown.<\/p>\n

With Brown returning, the Panthers could use another capable defender to build on what they’ve been bringing together in free agency. Carolina made a few upgrades in their secondary unit and in the middle but have yet to address the edge rush. Jadeveon Clowney<\/a> is entering the final year of his contract, so Epenesa filling in that spot as a defensive end could be efficient. Epenesa could finally bring Carolina back to life and give Young a potential run to possibly lead this team to a wild card.<\/p>\n

New Orleans Saints<\/h4>\n

Meanwhile, the future of this organization is turning ugly before it gets better. Derek Carr<\/a> might have played his last game with the Saints before starting his last potential season with an injury that will keep him out for the majority of 2025. First-year head coach Kellen Moore hopes to turn this team around, and he should do that for the time being with a ferocious pass rush. Chase Young is returning on a new contract<\/a>, but it’s going to take more than him to hold down the stomping grounds.<\/p>\n

Also, Cameron Jordan is past his prime, so Epenesa may give this team a legitimate scary pass rush.<\/p>\n

Washington Commanders<\/h4>\n

The future is bright for the Commanders since it was taken over by quarterback Jayden Daniels<\/a> and head coach Dan Quinn. They’re building something special in Washington, and they should maximize Daniel’s rookie contract as much as possible. Epenesa could be an easy fix since the team lost Dante Fowler Jr<\/a>, who led the team in sacks last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breaking news might happen this NFL Draft where the Buffalo Bills may ship off this defensive star to these three teams. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4795,"featured_media":227859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,3,30,28,8896],"tags":[5802,7705,7739,5718,432,1473,4374,7752,7661,7659,8996],"class_list":["post-227844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-bills","category-panthers","category-saints","category-washington-commanders","tag-a-j-epenesa","tag-buffalo-bills-news","tag-carolina-panthers-news","tag-chase-young","tag-dante-fowler-jr","tag-jadeveon-clowney","tag-matt-milano","tag-new-orleans-saints-news","tag-panthers-featured","tag-saints-featured","tag-washington-commanders-news"],"modified_by":"Anthony Palacios","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227844"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227892,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227844\/revisions\/227892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}