Buffalo announced its signing of former Jacksonville defensive end Dawuane Smoot, alongside its acquisitions of fellow free agents, wide receiver Chase Claypool and linebacker Deion Jones, on Friday.
Each player agreed to a one-year contract with the Bills.
Smoot, 29, spent seven seasons with the Jaguars following his third-round, 2017 NFL draft selection by the club, out of Illinois.
Over 99 appearances with the Jaguars, including 17 starts, Smoot accumulated 133 tackles with 27 for loss, 23.5 sacks, five forced fumbles and five defended passes. He posted four consecutive seasons with five or more sacks between 2019-22.
However, a torn Achilles suffered in Week 16 of the 2022 campaign lingered into 2023, limiting Smoot to 12 games, 10 tackles and one sack in his final season with Jacksonville.
Smoot is not the only depth member of the Jaguars’ 2023 edge-rush room to sign elsewhere this offseason. Jacksonville’s second 2019 first-round pick, K’Lavon Chaisson, joined Carolina in March.
To compensate, Jacksonville signed former Tennessee outside linebacker Trevis Gipson in March and selected former Texas Tech defensive end Myles Cole in the seventh round of the 2024 NFL draft last week.
Jacksonville currently has the third-most salary cap space in the NFL with $30,866,651 available on its 2024 spending table, per Over the Cap.
Veteran edge rushers such as former Jaguars, Calais Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue, Bud Dupree (most recently with Atlanta), Emmanuel Ogbah (Miami) and Jerry Hughes (Houston), among others, remain on the free agent market.
