Greg Rousseau has spent the first three weeks of the season turning opposing quarterbacks into a problem Buffalo doesn’t have to solve later.
The Bills edge rusher has opened with two sacks in each of his first three games, giving him six on the season and putting him alone at the top of the NFL in that category. That kind of start is rare enough on its own. The rest of Rousseau’s line makes it look even louder: 23 total pressures, eight quarterback hits, three forced fumbles and eight tackles for loss through three games.
That production has pushed Rousseau into a tiny corner of league history. Since sacks became an official stat in 1982, only two other players had managed at least two sacks in each of their team’s first three games of a season before him: Mark Gastineau in 1984 and Kevin Greene in 1998. Greene actually extended that run to four straight games, so Rousseau still has a chance to add another layer to the feat when Buffalo faces the New England Patriots on Sunday.
The efficiency behind the numbers is just as eye-catching. According to Pro Football Focus, Rousseau’s 23 pressures have come on 104 pass-rush snaps and include six sacks, nine hurries and eight quarterback hits. His 25.5% pass-rush win rate also sits among the league’s best.
And this hasn’t been empty stat-padding in lopsided moments. Rousseau struck first in Buffalo’s season-opening win over Houston, where he posted two sacks and finished the job with a strip-sack that sealed the game. He followed that up with two more sacks against Detroit, then repeated the performance against the Chargers.
That game against Los Angeles may have been his most complete outing yet. Rousseau piled up eight tackles, two sacks, four tackles for loss and three quarterback hits in Buffalo’s 24-16 win, a game the Bills survived despite five offensive turnovers.
After the Lions game, defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard pointed to the way Rousseau has settled in.
After the Lions game, Leonhard said Rousseau was playing with "a lot of confidence" and credited the Bills' efforts to putting him in positions where he could use his length more often.
"You're just seeing a guy play with complete confidence, trusting what we're asking him to do, trusting in the scheme right now," Leonhard said.
At the current pace, Rousseau’s start would translate to 34 sacks over a 17-game season, which would blow past Myles Garrett’s NFL single-season record of 23 sacks set last season. That kind of finish is obviously a massive ask. But through three games, Rousseau has already done something only a handful of players in league history have ever touched.
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Rivers, who has never coached in the NFL, said he leaned on his years as a longtime starting quarterback rather than a polished presentation or video-heavy pitch. Even so, he spoke with gratitude about getting the chance and with confidence that he could handle the job if called upon, which only added to the sense that Buffalos search touched some unconventional names before it moved on. [Read more 🡒]