Former Bills Draft Bust Edge Rusher Cut By NFC Contender Four Days After Signing

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Former Bills Draft Bust Edge Rusher Cut By NFC Contender Four Days After Signing

Buffalo Bills edge rusher Boogie Basham. Getty

Nathan Dougherty · HEAVY

Sun, Aug 30, 2026 ·

2 min read

Boogie Basham Left Looking for New NFL Team

The Commanders announced on Saturday that they released Basham, days after he impressed the team enough to earn a contract to the 90-man roster. The Athletic's Nick Jhabvala noted that the Commanders brought in a large group of players for tryouts, with Basham winning out.

"The Commanders are signing former Bills OLB Boogie Basham, per source," Jhabvala wrote in a post on X. "The former second-round pick was one of eight defensive players to work out for the team yesterday."

Basham has struggled since coming to the Bills as a second-round pick in 2021. He appeared in just eight games his rookie season, regularly being listed as a healthy scratch. He made 18 total tackles that year with 2.5 sacks.

Basham played one more year with the Bills before being traded to the New York Giants , where he remained until joining the Carolina Panthers last season. Basham has appeared in 43 total games over five NFL seasons with no starts.

Bills Starting to Make Roster Moves

The Bills made some roster moves on Saturday, announcing the first group of 13 players to be released ahead of Sunday's roster deadline. The group included veteran wide receiver Mecole Hardman Jr. and linebacker Otis Reese IV.

The Bills have been through some turmoil on defense this preseason, especially in the secondary. Several key players have missed time, forcing the team to lean heavily on backups in preseason games.

Bills defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard admitted it's concerning that the starting secondary hasn't gotten much time to work together and gel.

"It's still concerning to me just the whole secondary because it has been limited snaps with everybody, right?" Leonhard said . "We had that in the offseason with the safeties being out, and now in camp, it's the same thing.

"Cole's (Bishop) missed time, C.J.'s (Gardner-Johnson) missed time, Max (Hairston) has been out for a lot. So, it's more just how they gel and how they communicate and continuing to build up reps here, from now until Houston . It's always concerning when you're not banking those reps with what you'd probably consider to be the starting group out there. But, it is what it is."

This article was originally published on HEAVY