The Opening Drive 3/28: AJ Epenesa Provides Real Depth Upgrade

The role he fills in Cleveland and the upside the Browns think might still be there.

Mar 28, 2026

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ORCHARD PARK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 29: AJ Epenesa #57 of the Buffalo Bills takes the field prior to a game against the New York Jets at Highmark Stadium on December 29, 2024 in Orchard Park, New York. The Bills defeated the Jets 40-14. (Kara Durrette/Getty Images)

The Browns saw last season’s key rotational fit Cameron Thomas leave for Atlanta early in free agency so that meant a void to fill. As free agency’s first week came and went I found only a few names appealing before I turned my attention to drafting Thomas’s replacement.

One of the few names I found appealing was former Bill AJ Epenesa. The Browns agreed to terms with him early last week and the defensive end in on an ideal one-year deal worth up to five million dollars. It is not the splashy move, but the type of fit I thought made perfect sense given play style and what the Browns lost in Thomas. Let’s actually think about what is happening here and what it means for Mike Rutenberg’s defense in year one.

Epenesa spent six seasons in Buffalo and recorded 19 sacks across the 2022-24 stretch. That is a real number. The former second-round pick out of Iowa has been a reliable presence and a durable one, and the context of why he is available matters here. The Bills shifted to a 3-4 odd front scheme under new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard, and Epenesa wasn’t a fit for that system. He could have found a role, sure, but the Bills thought some other options were more appealing. This is not a player who fell off a cliff. This is a player whose team changed the architecture around him. That distinction is important when you are trying to figure out what you are actually getting.

Epenesa is going to be working mostly behind Myles Garrett just as Thomas did but there could be some early down snaps where the two share the field. It is likely most of his work will come in early downs, just as it did in Buffalo. More on that later.

Now he walks into a 4-3 defense he is comfortable with, working with one of the NFL’s best collective defensive lines, in a deal where he can prove he deserves more in a single season’s work.

His 8.7 percent pressure rate last season was slightly higher than Browns defensive end Alex Wright, who played the most snaps of any Cleveland edge defender ither than Garrett. So, before we dismiss the addition as pure depth filler, the pressure production is worth noting and there’s a chance he could get more work in those predictable pass situations he didn’t often receive in Buffalo.

It’s not a massive deal here but I do think it was smart for the market and what the Browns needed. The postseason track record is thin — he has never recorded a sack in 14 career playoff games. And the 2025 numbers were down to 2.5 sacks in 16 games after three years of genuine production. There are real questions about whether the 2022-24 version of Epenesa shows back up or whether that stretch was the outlier. Those are fair concerns to carry into training camp but the one-year nature of the deal and low-stress role could be a situation where Epenesa thrives — especially in how this defensive front is built on attacking.

Let’s dig into his recent tape and how the Browns are likely to use him.

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Epenesa is most certainly an early down EDGE defender. Over the last two seasons he has played 1,001 snaps. 822 of those snaps have come on first or second down. He played only 159 third downs (20 fourth downs) and when the distance went to 3rd and 7+ he only played 68 total snaps.

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