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Gregory Rousseau is becoming elite


Mikie2times

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Going to be honest, I've never been a big believer in developing players.  I suppose to a certain extent a few years in the league and NFL coaching helps players get to their ceiling but I think for the most part, beyond being put in the wrong system or being put in the wrong position, guys who end up being superstars were on the verge of being those guys when they stepped into the league.    For instance when I look at the list of the top ten sack totals I see a bunch of guys who have been at the top of the league since they stepped onto an NFL field.   Outside of Haason Reddick who was playing ILB his 1st 3 years in the league, Alex Highsmith and Josh Sweat who werent immediate full time starters, its a list of guys who have were good from word go.  

 

Do I think some of the issue with our Defensive Ends is our system, yes I do, but I am not expecting anything more from Epenesa, Basham or even Rosseau than we have already seen.   Rosseau is the best of the bunch, but he is still very far from elite.

 

Haason Reddick-19.5

Nick Bosa-18.5

Chris Jones-17.5

Myles Garrett-16.0

Matthew Judon-15.5

Micah Parsons-14.5

Alex Highsmith-14.5

Brian Burns-12.5

Maxx Crosby-12.5

Josh Sweat-12.5

J.J. Watt-12.5

Edited by thenorthremembers
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47 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

And I can live with him and those numbers as my DE2.  But in a couple years when Von is likely gone, don't be surprised to see those double digits disappear.  We failed miserably on AJ & Boogie so as much as this makes me nauseous,  we'll have to keep drafting 1 per year or hope more cap$ gets freed up.  I wish we could afford Chris Jones in a year but I know that's not realistic. 

Rousseau will likely improve next year, and I’d be absolutely content with an 8-10 sack LDE that can fight through doubles to set the edge. He’s on a similar trajectory as Cameron Jordan, so we’ll see. His next step is learning how to win against double teams on pass downs. He looked average at best against the pass when he was the only DL getting focused on with Jones and Oliver out of the rotation.

 

Basham has been a dud so far. No reason he should take enough snaps to keep Rousseau at a 40 something percent snap count. Epenesa I can live with as a 4th DE if he keeps improving as he can at least win some 1 v 1’s. By the end of the season he had 6.5 sacks, 5 PDs, 2 FF, and 7 TFLs. 

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Bills desperately need another reliable pass rusher besides Miller (assuming he returns close to his pre-injury form). I had hoped it would be Oliver or Rousseau - both if the Bills got lucky, but it looks like it might be snake eyes instead. They’re both decent players and Rousseau will probably improve a little more, but neither one is the pass rushing force they were looking for or need, IMO.

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1 hour ago, vincec said:

Bills desperately need another reliable pass rusher besides Miller (assuming he returns close to his pre-injury form). I had hoped it would be Oliver or Rousseau - both if the Bills got lucky, but it looks like it might be snake eyes instead. They’re both decent players and Rousseau will probably improve a little more, but neither one is the pass rushing force they were looking for or need, IMO.

 

awful drafting on DL. 

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Anybody want to bump my Kyle Williams preseason review where I discussed how I thought he was going to surprise a lot of people? 

We could also unearth some Haloti Ngata, but I think half the wall has one of those threads to bump 

Edited by KzooMike
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10 minutes ago, KzooMike said:

Anybody want to bump my Kyle Williams preseason review where I discussed how I thought he was going to surprise a lot of people? 

We could also unearth some Haloti Ngata, but I think half the wall has one of those threads to bump 

 

Just post a link to that post here so anyone can read it if they so desire. No need to bump.

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4 hours ago, thenorthremembers said:

Going to be honest, I've never been a big believer in developing players.  I suppose to a certain extent a few years in the league and NFL coaching helps players get to their ceiling but I think for the most part, beyond being put in the wrong system or being put in the wrong position, guys who end up being superstars were on the verge of being those guys when they stepped into the league.    For instance when I look at the list of the top ten sack totals I see a bunch of guys who have been at the top of the league since they stepped onto an NFL field.   Outside of Haason Reddick who was playing ILB his 1st 3 years in the league, Alex Highsmith and Josh Sweat who werent immediate full time starters, its a list of guys who have were good from word go.  

 

Do I think some of the issue with our Defensive Ends is our system, yes I do, but I am not expecting anything more from Epenesa, Basham or even Rosseau than we have already seen.   Rosseau is the best of the bunch, but he is still very far from elite.

 

Haason Reddick-19.5

Nick Bosa-18.5

Chris Jones-17.5

Myles Garrett-16.0

Matthew Judon-15.5

Micah Parsons-14.5

Alex Highsmith-14.5

Brian Burns-12.5

Maxx Crosby-12.5

Josh Sweat-12.5

J.J. Watt-12.5

You have to have player development because draft picks are on cost control contracts. You can only have so many high price free agents on your roster guys. They can rush the passer make bank

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28 minutes ago, chongli said:

 

Just post a link to that post here so anyone can read it if they so desire. No need to bump.

I was just messing around. This threads not aging well but I hope it will eventually. For humors sake here is the nearly two decade old post I will tell my never to born grandkids about 

 

 

Edited by KzooMike
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4 hours ago, Einstein said:

 

I think if we’re all being honest we noticed him go back to rookie season Groot when Von went down.

 

 

Or he just didn't recover well enough after the high ankle sprain that sidelined him to have the same impact.

 

Also he was much better early in his rookie year when he was getting more pressure and had the interception of Mahomes in KC than he was later.

 

Next season he needs to put together a full season..........but even if he gets 14-15 sacks he will never impress some fans because his style isn't going to look dynamic........there won't be a lot of bending, leaping or lunging to get his sacks..........he will make lots of simple looking plays(that others don't have the ability to)........and they count the same as dynamic looking ones.

 

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4 hours ago, thenorthremembers said:

Going to be honest, I've never been a big believer in developing players.  I suppose to a certain extent a few years in the league and NFL coaching helps players get to their ceiling but I think for the most part, beyond being put in the wrong system or being put in the wrong position, guys who end up being superstars were on the verge of being those guys when they stepped into the league.    For instance when I look at the list of the top ten sack totals I see a bunch of guys who have been at the top of the league since they stepped onto an NFL field.   Outside of Haason Reddick who was playing ILB his 1st 3 years in the league, Alex Highsmith and Josh Sweat who werent immediate full time starters, its a list of guys who have were good from word go.  

 

Do I think some of the issue with our Defensive Ends is our system, yes I do, but I am not expecting anything more from Epenesa, Basham or even Rosseau than we have already seen.   Rosseau is the best of the bunch, but he is still very far from elite.

 

Haason Reddick-19.5

Nick Bosa-18.5

Chris Jones-17.5

Myles Garrett-16.0

Matthew Judon-15.5

Micah Parsons-14.5

Alex Highsmith-14.5

Brian Burns-12.5

Maxx Crosby-12.5

Josh Sweat-12.5

J.J. Watt-12.5

 

 Ok, using your list let's do a bit more fair of a comparison. Total sacks 1st 2 years in the league:

 

Micah Parsons-26.5 

J.J. Watt-26.0

Myles Garrett-20.5

Maxx Crosby-17.0

Brian Burns-16.5

Groot-12.0

Matthew Judon-12.0

Nick Bosa-9.0(Hurt only played in 2 games his 2nd year) 

Chris Jones-8.5

Alex Highsmith-8.0

Haason Reddick-6.5

Josh Sweat-4.0

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, LOVEMESOMEBILLS said:

 

 Ok, using your list let's do a bit more fair of a comparison. Total sacks 1st 2 years in the league:

 

Micah Parsons-26.5 

J.J. Watt-26.0

Myles Garrett-20.5

Maxx Crosby-17.0

Brian Burns-16.5

Groot-12.0

Matthew Judon-12.0

Nick Bosa-9.0(Hurt only played in 2 games his 2nd year) 

Chris Jones-8.5

Alex Highsmith-8.0

Haason Reddick-6.5

Josh Sweat-4.0

 

 

 

Fair enough.   As I said in my original post neither Highsmith or Sweat was a full time starter, Reddick played ILB.  To add to that Chris Jones was a full time Defensive Tackle, now he moves between end and DT.

 

Can you look at that list and honestly tell me you think Rousseau is anywhere near the player Bosa or Chris Jones is? 

Edited by thenorthremembers
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10 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

Give him a chance to develop. He performed worse at the end of the year after an ankle injury and after he started getting more attention because Von wasn't there. 3rd year was always going to be his big step year anyways. He started just 13 games in college and took a year off from football during covid. He will be 23 when the season starts, younger than a lot of rookies will be. So he was never going to hit his ceiling right away. I'm really excited to see him reach his potential and I think we start to see it this year.


When people write stuff like what I bolded above it makes me crazy. I have exactly zero memory of anybody ever saying that “year 3, that’s when Greg Rousseau comes alive!”

 

It is just a bunch of hopeful nonsense. I don’t say this to be mean but it drives me nuts. Instead of drafting to help our QB, we likely wasted four picks on bad to JAGish defensive lineman. 
 

Lastly, this is an old boring take but I do remember watching some of Rousseau’s college “highlights” and it struck me how cheap so many of his sacks seemed (i.e. QB running into him, a long amateurish play resulting in a sack that you’d never see in the NFL, or him grabbing a sack as a result of another player making a big play to open up a sack for him). In retrospect, it kinda reminds me of when I first saw EJ’s college highlights.

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