Most Valuable Bills: DE Jerry Hughes ranks 26th for 2021

Heading into his 12th NFL season, Buffalo Bills defensive Jerry Hughes has learned every trick in the league.

By the time he plays his last game for Buffalo, which likely will be this fall, the Bills are hoping he can impart all he's absorbed on the younger players they have acquired to eventually take over, like Gregory Rousseau, Carlos Basham and A.J. Epenesa.

Along the way, they're hoping for at least one more year of the kind of productivity that's kept him employed for so long, including the previous eight seasons with the Bills.

Hughes, who will turn 33 in August, last year contributed 29 tackles, 4.5 sacks and his first career interception. He came to play in the postseason too, taking down Patrick Mahomes once and Lamar Jackson twice over their final two playoff games of last season.

How he will fit this season will depend on how ready rookies Rousseau and Basham are to plug and play and whether Epenesa can make that big second-year leap the Bills expect of him now that his weight has stopped fluctuating and he can play with more power.

Hughes almost certainly will be a part of whatever success they experience. That would be the case even if he is traded before the season begins to help sort out a glut at that position, in which the Bills also have Mario Addison, Darryl Johnson, Mike Love and intriguing free-agent acquisition Efe Obada.

Money could play a role here. Trading Hughes in this final year of his contract would give the Bills $7.35 million in salary cap relief, according to Over the Cap. That surplus may be better spent on a tight end like Zach Ertz or a cornerback like Steven Nelson.

So keep an eye on what happens at the defensive end position as the summer wears on for the Bills and their younger players continue to develop.