Greg Rousseau 5th year option picked up

[Woodman]

The Bills selected Rousseau 30th overall in Round 1 of the 2021 NFL Draft, and his on-field contributions tell the story of a player who’s still maturing within the system — and that his best is likely still to come as a professional. Having just turned 24, the 6’6”, 266-pound defensive end plays an important role for Buffalo’s defense. He’s someone who isn’t easily bottled into the either/or of edge rusher/defensive end. He’s instead nestled neatly between the two, a more complete defensive line player on the perimeter of the Bills’ defensive trench alignment.

Buffalo Bills picking up fifth-year option for DE Greg Rousseau - Buffalo Rumblings

[OpIv37]

I'm ok with not creating yet another hole, but he's a typical Beane draft pick.

He's not a bust but he doesn't play up to his draft position.

[ghz in pittsburgh]

In that 2021 draft, 34 DEs are picked. Below are first 4 rounds. Outside of Parsons, Phillips and Rousseau might be the best of the bunch. Considering injuries etc., I can put Rousseau on par with Phillips and Rousseau is picked near the very bottom of the 1st round.

Basham is a complete bust. And that may have influenced Beane and his scouting department as they have not picked those tweeners since.

#12 - Micah Parsons, Cowboys
#18 - Jaelan Phillips, Dolphins
#21 - Kwity Paye, Colts
#28 - Payton Turner, Saints
#30 - Greg Rousseau, Bills
#31 - Odafe Oweh, Ravens
#32 - Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, Bucs

#50 - Azeez Ojulari, Giants
#54 - Dayo Odeyingbo, Colts
#61 - Carlos Basham Jr. Bills
#69 - Joseph Ossai, Bengals
#79 - Malcolm Koonce, Raiders
#84 - Chauncey Golston, Cowboys
#90 - Patrick Jones II, Vikings
#96 - Ronnie Perkins, Patriots
#111 - Cameron Sample, Bengals
#116 - Elerson Smith, Giants
#118 - Chris Romph II, Raiders
#121 - Jordam Smith, Jaguars
#134 - Janarius Robinson, Vikings
#135 - Rasgad Weaver, Titans
#144 - Joshua Kaindoh, Chiefs
#148 - Ta'Quon Graham, Falcons
#171 - Daelin Hayes, Ravens
#174 - Earnest Brown IV, Rams
#182 - Adetokunbo Ogundeji, Falcons

[notacon]

I'm ok with not creating yet another hole, but he's a typical Beane draft pick.

He's not a bust but he doesn't play up to his draft position.

More baloney from the king of baloney.

[Novacane]

I'm ok with not creating yet another hole, but he's a typical Beane draft pick.

He's not a bust but he doesn't play up to his draft position.

Has he not played up to his draft position though? Sometimes it seems like fans expect 1rst round picks to become stars when reality is most of them don't. I feel like if a player plays well enough to get his 5th year option picked up then he was a decent pick. If he's good enough that his team gives him a 2nd contract I'd say that was a good pick. If you get a star you got lucky IMO.

[Woodman]

More baloney from the king of baloney.

[OpIv37]

Has he not played up to his draft position though? Sometimes it seems like fans expect 1rst round picks to become stars when reality is most of them don't. I feel like if a player plays well enough to get his 5th year option picked up then he was a decent pick. If he's good enough that his team gives him a 2nd contract I'd say that was a good pick. If you get a star you got lucky IMO.

All good teams have star players. The best place to find them is the first round of the draft. The teams that find the stars are going to surpass the teams that don’t.

Also, I’m not sure our FO is good at drafting DL. Rousseau, Basham, Oliver, Epenesa…..

Basham’s the only bust but the others are slightly better than average. I feel like they pay a lot of attention to the DL and it’s certainly not bad, but we’ve def had better DL’s in the past.

[Novacane]

All good teams have star players. The best place to find them is the first round of the draft. The teams that find the stars are going to surpass the teams that don’t.

Also, I’m not sure our FO is good at drafting DL. Rousseau, Basham, Oliver, Epenesa…..

Basham’s the only bust but the others are slightly better than average. I feel like they pay a lot of attention to the DL and it’s certainly not bad, but we’ve def had better DL’s in the past.

I agree the best place to find star players is the first round of the draft. It's still a lot higher miss than hit rate if the qualification for it being a good pick is the player has to be a star.

[Novacane]

In that 2021 draft, 34 DEs are picked. Below are first 4 rounds. Outside of Parsons, Phillips and Rousseau might be the best of the bunch. Considering injuries etc., I can put Rousseau on par with Phillips and Rousseau is picked near the very bottom of the 1st round.

Basham is a complete bust. And that may have influenced Beane and his scouting department as they have not picked those tweeners since.

#12 - Micah Parsons, Cowboys
#18 - Jaelan Phillips, Dolphins
#21 - Kwity Paye, Colts
#28 - Payton Turner, Saints
#30 - Greg Rousseau, Bills
#31 - Odafe Oweh, Ravens
#32 - Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, Bucs

#50 - Azeez Ojulari, Giants
#54 - Dayo Odeyingbo, Colts
#61 - Carlos Basham Jr. Bills
#69 - Joseph Ossai, Bengals
#79 - Malcolm Koonce, Raiders
#84 - Chauncey Golston, Cowboys
#90 - Patrick Jones II, Vikings
#96 - Ronnie Perkins, Patriots
#111 - Cameron Sample, Bengals
#116 - Elerson Smith, Giants
#118 - Chris Romph II, Raiders
#121 - Jordam Smith, Jaguars
#134 - Janarius Robinson, Vikings
#135 - Rasgad Weaver, Titans
#144 - Joshua Kaindoh, Chiefs
#148 - Ta'Quon Graham, Falcons
#171 - Daelin Hayes, Ravens
#174 - Earnest Brown IV, Rams
#182 - Adetokunbo Ogundeji, Falcons

Interesting. Other than Parsons and Phillips I've never heard of the rest of them. Have any of them had better careers than Rousseau? Parsons is the only star. Phillips has a little better stats than Rousseau but was drafted before him. I think this proves the point that you hope to get starters with your first pick. If they end up stars it's a bonus.

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Basham’s the only bust but the others are slightly better than average. I feel like they pay a lot of attention to the DL and it’s certainly not bad, but we’ve def had better DL’s in the past.

We drafted in top 10 or about in the past. Now we are drafting in the bottom 6 picks range, as we are consistently winning at least 1 playoff game. That's a huge difference - going from bottom 6 picks to top 10 typically means at least 2 first and a second pick

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Interesting. Other than Parsons and Phillips I've never heard of the rest of them. Have any of them had better careers than Rousseau? Parsons is the only star. Phillips has a little better stats than Rousseau but was drafted before him. I think this proves the point that you hope to get starters with your first pick. If they end up stars it's a bonus.

DE has always been viewed as the equivalent of QB on defense. You play 2 on every play and you rotate these guys. So there is no shortage of demand from NFL teams. 2021, Beane spent 2 high draft picks on that position and came out with one above average starter. I'd say he hit a double (1 for 2 in baseball terms), particularly you consider the picks started from the #30 position, like he stepped in to the batter box from the 0 - 1 count. Dallas hit a home run.

For reference in 2020 draft, DEs drafted in first 4 rounds -
#2 - Chase Young, Commanders
#20 - K'Lavon Chaisson, Jaguars
#38 - Yetur Gross-Matos, Panthers
#47 - Marlon Davidson, Falcons
#48 - Darrell Taylor, Seahawks
#54 - AJ Epenesa, Bills
#79 - Jabari Zunica, Jets
#117 - DJ Wonnam, Vikings

Again, from where Beane was batting, he hit a single on Epenesa whereas almost everyone else struck out, except for Chase Young where injuries may have doomed his promising career.

[OpIv37]

We drafted in top 10 or about in the past. Now we are drafting in the bottom 6 picks range, as we are consistently winning at least 1 playoff game. That's a huge difference - going from bottom 6 picks to top 10 typically means at least 2 first and a second pick

Ok. KC has drafted even lower than us and they still won 3 of the last 5 SB’s. NE drafted in the bottle six for nearly two decades and still stayed on top.

[Turf]

FWIW, and it's not much. But every Madden football franchise simulation I've played in the last 2 years has Rousseau becoming the predominant pass rusher in the league. Superstar status, every one of them.

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Ok. KC has drafted even lower than us and they still won 3 of the last 5 SB’s. NE drafted in the bottle six for nearly two decades and still stayed on top.

Belichick is the universally acknowledged all-time defensive GOAT, not as a draft Guru. If you tell any defensive coaches and say you better be Belichick good is going to be very hard. On draft, I don't know in later years, NE has drafted any real HoF D players.

KC has difference makers before Mahomes showed up, and they are still reaping dividends from the HoF candidates Hill (now in the form of draft picks they got from Miami, which netted them guys like McDuffie), Kelce, and Jones. Have they really drafted any difference makers after Mahomes? That's about the timeline Beane came in as the main brain for Bills drafting.

In playoff games against KC, Allen is almost toe-to-toe to Mahomes in terms of performance. But KC also had Hill, Kelce, and Jones showed up in those games whereas we had none after Allen.

[Thurmal]

Rousseau is slightly above average. Had one good half-season that coincidentally happened at the same time Von Miller was averaging a sack a game.

[notacon]

Ok. KC has drafted even lower than us and they still won 3 of the last 5 SB’s. NE drafted in the bottle six for nearly two decades and still stayed on top.

Because of Patrick Mahomes.

When Josh Allen consistently plays up to the level that Mahomes has in the most critical moments of playoff games, the Bills will win SB's too.

[OpIv37]

Because of Patrick Mahomes.

When Josh Allen consistently plays up to the level that Mahomes has in the most critical moments of playoff games, the Bills will win SB's too.

Not buying it. There have been dozens of great QB’s whose teams never won multiple Super Bowls- or even one SB- cuz they never had the team around them. Mahomes is great but he isn’t that much better than the other QB’s that he can single-handedly win championships.

And Josh is what he is. Six years in, he’s not changing or improving at this point. We just have to accept that he’s a gunslinger, which means he’s going to do some amazing things but also make some dumb mistakes.

[notacon]

Not buying it. There have been dozens of great QB’s whose teams never won multiple Super Bowls- or even one SB- cuz they never had the team around them. Mahomes is great but he isn’t that much better than the other QB’s that he can single-handedly win championships.

And Josh is what he is. Six years in, he’s not changing or improving at this point. We just have to accept that he’s a gunslinger, which means he’s going to do some amazing things but also make some dumb mistakes.

Of course you are not "buying it" because you are a dedicated anti-Bills Negative Nancy that (as proven by your wacky, overwhelmingly wrong predictions) have little grasp on "reality" despite your insistence that you do.

[ZAZusmc03]

Josh has told us who he is, over and over again. Op is a negative nancy but he isn't stupid. Josh is a more athletic version of Farve. He WILL make stupid decisions to force plays because he has blind faith in his arm strength.