A second high-profile D-line cap casualty is heading to Buffalo. After agreeing to terms with Joey Bosa on Tuesday night, the Bills have reached a Wednesday-morning agreement with Larry Ogunjobi.
The recent Steelers release will join the Bills on a one-year, $8.3MM deal, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports. Incentives could bump the number to $10MM for Ogunjobi, who spent the past three seasons with the Steelers.
This will be Ogunjobi’s first trip outside the AFC North. The eight-year veteran has played for the Browns, Bengals and Steelers, becoming a quality interior pass rusher. The 108-game career starter will join a Bills team that features Ed Oliver and DaQuan Jones at D-tackle. Quinton Jefferson and Jordan Phillips, each acquired in-season last year, are free agents.
Ogunjobi’s sack numbers have tailed off in recent years, but he does have three seasons with at least 5.5. These came with Cleveland and Cincinnati. With Pittsburgh, Ogunjobi tallied six sacks in three combined seasons. The Steelers did see the Cameron Heyward sidekick post 15 tackles for loss and 26 QB hits in that span, one that included the Steelers giving him a three-year, $40.5MM contract. Ogunjobi became a release candidate, however, and Pittsburgh cut bait with a season left on the contract.
Working as a starter for the Bengals team that eventually ventured to Super Bowl LVI, Ogunjobi suffered a season-ending foot injury during the team’s wild-card win. An ensuing physical led the Bears to nix a deal with the former Browns third-rounder the following March, as Ogunjobi landed in Pittsburgh on a one-year, $8MM deal. He played well enough to command the above-referenced Steelers extension, and enough of a market formed over the past two days to bring the Bills past $8MM.
Playing on an extension he signed in 2023, Oliver operates as Buffalo’s top interior pass rusher. The former first-round pick posted a career-high 9.5 sacks in 2023 and has combined to deliver 29 QB hits over the past two seasons. Jones, conversely, is the Bills’ top interior run stuffer. It would stand to reason Ogunjobi will play behind this duo as a high-end reserve option. This is certainly a lot to pay such a player, pointing to Bills confidence Ogunjobi can excel as a frequently used second-stringer.
Ogunjobi’s career-high sack total (seven) came with the Bengals in 2021, and he combined for 20 TFLs between the 2018 and ’19 seasons as a Brown. Chosen in the same draft as Cleveland added Myles Garrett, Ogunjobi has never been an advanced metrics darling. But the 48.3 overall grade he received from Pro Football Focus for his 2024 work was especially low and positioned him as the 94th-best interior DL out of 118 qualifiers. Still, the Bills will bet he has quality football left.