Bills' Greg Rousseau has arrived as a premier NFL edge rusher

The Buffalo Bills' biggest defensive weakness over the last handful of years has been the ability to create consistent pressure, as well as struggling to find a top-tier edge rusher.

Buffalo signed Von Miller in 2022, but he tore his ACL mid-way through the season. When he returned in 2023, he clearly was not the same player, and was even a healthy scratch down the stretch. The Bills really needed one of their young edge rushers that they used high-end draft capital on to acquire to step up, and one of them has done that and then some.

Greg Rousseau had a promising preseason, highlighted by a 2.5 sack performance against the Steelers. In Week 1 against the Arizona Cardinals, Rousseau had the best game of his career and may have finally begun to established himself as the high-end edge rusher that the Bills were hoping he would be when they took him in the first round back in 2021.

Rousseau had three sacks on Kyler Murray, one of which was a strip sack recovered by Dorian Williams that led to a Josh Allen touchdown pass to Khalil Shakir that put the Bills in front for good. With his performance, Rousseau ties Ben Williams for the most sacks in a Bills' season opener, which Williams accomplished back in 1983.

Rousseau had shown glimpses of the player he could be in the past, but this felt like his official coming out party as a superstar. If this is a sign of things to come, Buffalo has their franchise pass rusher.