Greg Rousseau’s fast start has given the Bills exactly the kind of defensive juice Jim Leonhard needs.
Buffalo survived a chaotic, turnover-heavy day from Josh Allen and still knocked off the Los Angeles Chargers to move to 3-0, but the biggest reason the Bills kept rolling was the same player who has been driving Leonhard’s defense all season. Rousseau delivered another multi-sack game Sunday, and with two sacks against the Chargers, he made history.
He became the first player since 2000 - and only the third in NFL history - to open a season with three straight games of two or more sacks. The only others to do it were Marc Gastineau in 1984 and Kevin Greene in 1998.
That kind of production is more than a hot streak. It’s the engine for how Leonhard wants this defense to work.
Leonhard’s approach, shaped by his Broncos background, leans on disguising looks and getting fast pressure off the edge to disrupt the passing game. In Denver, Nik Bonitto was the pass-rush centerpiece. In Buffalo, Rousseau has stepped into that role.
The comparison isn’t exact, of course. Denver had Patrick Surtain II locking things down at corner, while Buffalo’s secondary is still one of the roster’s biggest question marks.
Christian Benford may be underrated, but neither he nor Maxwell Hairston is on Surtain II’s level in coverage. That makes the front even more important for Buffalo.
Rousseau has done his part to ease that burden.
Sack totals can be misleading, since plenty of them come from someone else’s pressure forcing the quarterback into trouble. Rousseau’s numbers have been earned. According to PFF, he already has 23 total pressures this season, good for second in the NFL.
And he’s not just wrecking passing plays. Through three games, Rousseau has also put together one of the strongest run-defending stretches of his career, with 12 run stops.
Take him out of the lineup, and Leonhard’s defense loses its bite. Leonhard needs Rousseau to make the unit go, and Rousseau needs the scheme to keep putting him in position to win. Right now, that pairing is working exactly as Buffalo hoped.
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