A wild-card contender will ride to victory in the Joey Bosa sweepstakes. Rather than a 49ers deal to play with his brother, Bosa is heading to Buffalo.
The Bills and Bosa have a one-year, $12.6MM deal in place, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports. This reminds of the 2022 Von Miller sweepstakes, when a supposed Cowboys-Rams duel ended with the future Hall of Famer choosing the Bills. Soon after Buffalo released Miller, Bosa will be on track to play opposite Gregory Rousseau.
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Also rostering A.J. Epenesa in the second season of a two-year contact, the Bills will be expected to keep the former second-round pick on the bench. Bosa received natural interest from the 49ers, who were the rumored favorites due to Nick Bosa‘s presence on the team. Similar to the 2021 J.J. Watt free agency, a dynamic brother tandem will not form. Joey Bosa also will spurn his hometown team, as the Dolphins showed interest as well. He will join a five-time reigning AFC East champion that continues to be denied Super Bowl berths.
Buffalo will land the older Bosa brother ahead of his age-30 season. Unlike Miller at the time, Bosa has a steady history of nagging injuries that ended up leading to a Chargers release. (That said, Miller did miss all of 2020 and had an ACL tear on his resume previously.) The Bolts re-signed Khalil Mack, despite the potential Hall of Famer being four years older than Bosa. The latter will attempt to prove he can stay healthy with the Bills, whose pass rush could receive a jolt if Bosa is healthy.
The former No. 3 overall pick made it through 14 Chargers games last season but was limited to five in 2022 and nine in 2023. The Chargers gave Bosa pay cut in 2024. He made the Pro Bowl last season but only registered five sacks; his 19 pressures ranked 68th last season. While injuries have taken Joey Bosa off the top tier on which his brother resides, he remains a formidable blocking assignment. His presence figures to boost Rousseau, though the latter will not exactly be viewed as a sidekick the way Mack, Uchenna Nwosu and Melvin Ingram were opposite Bosa with the Chargers. Continuing to invest in their early-2020s draftees, the Bills just gave Rousseau a four-year, $80MM extension.
Five Pro Bowls appear on Bosa’s resume. His career does not closely rival Miller’s at the time of a Bills signing, as it will not take anything close to Miller’s terms (6/120 with guarantees into Year 3) to land the 10th-year veteran. But Bosa has four double-digit sack seasons on his resume. The most recent came in 2021, a season that included seven of Bosa’s career 17 forced fumbles.
Although the Bills have separated from Miller, NFL.com’s Cameron Wolfe reported earlier tonight the team has continued to talk with the veteran’s camp about a potential deal at a lower rate. While this Bosa signing could nix that, Wolfe indicated the Bills wanted Miller back and to add another quality edge rusher. Bosa (again, if healthy) would qualify for the latter role, so it will be interesting to see if the team is still interested in working something out to bring Miller back as a rotational rusher. Miller posted six sacks last season, bouncing back from a 2023 slate marred by his injury recovery.
Buffalo has already added ex-Rams pass rusher Michael Hoecht as well. Given an $8MM-per-year deal, Hoecht has worked as a versatile piece during his career. He will come to Buffalo with 13 career sacks. Hoecht and Epenesa may well be Buffalo’s second-string defensive ends, which would seemingly leave little room for Miller. Though, the soon-to-be 36-year-old may not be out of the equation entirely just yet.
The Bills did not see Miller’s prime extend beyond his 2022 ACL tear, and they will bet on Bosa still having some of his left. Rousseau’s arrow is pointing upward, but the former first-rounder has topped out at eight sacks in a season thus far. The Bills were unable to consistently disrupt Patrick Mahomes in the AFC championship game, allowing a Chiefs team they defeated by two scores in the regular season to post its only 30-plus-point game of the season. As the Bills attempt to finally push their Josh Allen-driven nucleus to a Super Bowl, Bosa will be asked to play a central role.
I’m shocked he didn’t join the 49ers
Same. I assume they could have matched that contract, and it had been widely reported that the brothers wanted to play together. I wonder what happened.
@tunesquad. It was probably the money. it was reported under 10 million. It’s kinda of a weird number
The 49ers big splash will be adding Frank Gore Jr to the roster 🙂
Best of luck Joey. I’m going to miss him as a Charger
Gross
Should’ve kept Floyd.
Why? He was awful in run d, and overrated in pass rush
Just a hunch, but Epenesa won’t be sitting often for the Bills. From the Chargers perspective, smart to cut him and sign healthier Mack.
Really good pickup for the Bills
Puts that already good defense over the top
Wow. It’s an exciting move, but it’s gonna take me a day or so to process this one before I know if I’m psyched about it. I’m getting more excited about Hoecht the more I read, but that injury history with Bosa is worrisome and he really is nowhere near his brother kind of good. If his was the best they can do, I’ll trust them on that. They’ve earned it. It certainly is splashy. I do like that.
Was hoping the niners would get him and go tackle in the draft, now no clue. 85 mill in dead money points to a reset year though
The Bills had $75 million in dead cap last year and made the conference championship. A cap reset year doesn’t have to be a non-competitive year.
The niners have like 50 mill in cap space, but won’t sign anyone but backups, that’s the problem. They need a whole d line besides bosa.
This draft class is deeper in defensive line than anything else and the first wave of free agency isn’t all of it.
Sure, but 3 new d lineman will be tough to integrate. They need to rebuild both lines fully
Then why do you want them to spend money on a Bosa who can’t stay healthy? They can spend less money bringing in guys like Tomlinson on the interior while they spam the lines in the draft.
Joey bosa at under 10 would be worth the risk. The contract he got from the bills isn’t. They’ll pick up a couple starters during late cuts and be better for it over these crazy contracts
I think so too. And they’ll definitely hit it in the draft. It’s not like they brought back Saleh to not get the line back in shape.
I hope he plays better for Buffalo,,cause he stunk in LA
People always have the most ridiculous takes on here about some of the best players in the game.
Bosa probably isn’t what he was in his early years in San Diego but he’s still one of the best pass rushers of his generation hands down.
Great pickup by Buffalo that’s a lot cheaper than you’d think it would be.
That’s assuming he can stay healthy
Perfect spot for him to win a division title and be home as soon as the AFC championship game is over.
Its a one year deal – so if it doesn’t work out, no worries.
Its only upside, but at some point we gotta get this right.
He is hurt a lot, but the Bills have depth and it’s most likely an incentive based deal.
Its not really incentive based. The base is 12.6 and incentives to something like 15. If he hits those incentives it means he played well.
But, as I noted – its a one year deal. Only upside here.
Its not a Von Miller sized mistake. It didn’t work out? Ok. Move on. No commitment.
This is a good move – IDK why any would say differently. Its worth certainly worth gamble at this premium position.
I wanted a Trey Hendrickson trade, but it was always long shot Cincy would trade him to us.
Nailed it!