Trent Murphy made expendable in Bills lineup by AJ Epenesa
It’s a pretty simple reason why defensive end Trent Murphy was a healthy scratch for the Buffalo Bills in their 27-17 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
The long and short answer: AJ Epenesa, and to a tad lesser extend, Darryl Johnson. On Monday following the win, Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier discussed the lineup decision made by the Bills, saying the youth seemed more promising ahead of this matchup.
“Trent’s been a very productive player for us in Buffalo,” Frazier said. “But just being able to see AJ’s development and how he’s been able to come along did play into Trent not being available.”
Murphy, 29, was viewed by many observers of the Bills as a potential salary cap casualty coming into the 2020 season. Instead, he made the team, as did both Epenesa and Johnson. That left the Bills with a stacked defensive end room.
For most of this season, the Bills have rolled with Murphy. In most cases, he’s in a No. 3 role on the edge behind Jerry Hughes and Mario Addison. But this isn’t the first time the Bills have done move with their defensive front.
Early this year against the Chiefs, Murphy was a surprise healthy scratch along with defensive tackle Harrison Phillips. Following that game, Murphy jumped back into the lineup while Phillips was continued to be a consistent health scratch.
But it appears that now the youth is emerging more than ever considering both Epenesa (31) and Johnson (24) played a season-high total number of snaps, respectively, against the Chargers. The eye test told a similar thing as Epenesa, who had a tackle for loss, did standout.
Any of those observing that about Epenesa through their television also has some backing in that same idea from the Bills coaching staff.
“Eric Washington, our D-line coach, we were talking about this earlier today when we were having our D-line meeting, just the fact that he and Darryl Johnson just both did a really good job and increased our confidence in two young players,” Frazier said via video conference. “AJ made it, convincingly, that we need to get him more snaps and get him out there more.
“(Epenesa) showed splashes of a guy who could be an impact player,” Frazier added.
One early storyline to keep an eye on this week for the Bills ahead of their Monday Night Football meeting against the San Francisco 49ers is whether or not Murphy’s in the lineup or the youthful approach is taken again.
