#Bills’ Von Miller, Sean McDermott on Greg Rousseau’s ‘big time day’
Buffalo DE Greg Rousseau tied a Bills franchise record for sacks (3.0) Sunday en route to a 34-28 season home opener win.
The Bills 2021 first-round NFL Draft pick logged three sacks on Cardinals QB Kyler Murray, including a fumble.
After he notched his first sack in the first quarter, the Cardinals were racking up offensive yards and points on the Bills’ defensive unit to the tune of 191 yards and 14 first-down conversions during the first two-quarters of the game, scoring every possession except for a kneel-down to end the first half.
But Rousseau continued the dominant play he’s exhibited as of late.
The fourth-year defensive end answered and got to Murray on the first Arizona possession of the second half for an 8-yard loss on third-and-6. He followed that up with a strip sack recovered by Dorian Williams that gave Josh Allen the ball back, which the QB then threw for a touchdown pass to receiver Khalil Shakir to give the Bills a lead they built on and never relinquished.
“Yeah big time day, big time day. I love that he carried over to the game what he had shown in training camp and then the last couple weeks in practice,” HC Sean McDermott said postgame about Rousseau. “
That’s big, like when you can take how you do things from practice and do it in the game that’s a mindset right and so that’s that’s also growth and maturation in and of itself.”
The Bills head coach was not the only one to speak highly of Rousseau after the game, as OLB Von Miller took the postgame press conference podium with the young edge rusher.
“It’s a great feeling to see him grow and see him develop into one of the premier pass rushers in this league. There’s only about 5 of them and he’s one of them,” he added
A frequent headline topic this offseason has been the fifth-year option which locks Rousseau in on his rookie deal for two more years through the end of the 2025 NFL season.
Whether a precursor to an extension or a prove-it period, Rousseau is quickly making his case for the former option.
If his elevated level of play continues, the price tag to re-sign him to a new deal could go up as well, which would suggest an extension would be better sooner. Time will tell how things unfold in terms of a new deal, but for now, Rousseau is steadily earning it week to week.
And that effort was big in a comeback win on Sunday.
Josh Allen picked up right where he left off last season to begin Buffalo’s 2024 campaign with a 34-28 Bills win over the Cardinals.
The 2023 total yards and total touchdowns leader went 18 for 23 plus 232 yards and two touchdowns passing, along with 39 yards and two touchdowns rushing on nine attempts in Sunday’s victorious home opener.
His ground attack also included a signature Air Allen hurdle over 3-time all-pro and 6-time pro bowler Budda Baker for a fourth-quarter rushing score.
When asked by the press after the contest he said it was “fine.” and he’d “probably” get X-rays, which he reportedly did postgame.
“I’m not a doctor…I just kinda landed on it,” he added.
The Bills got off to a slow start in the first half, and Allen lost a fumble on the first drive and had what would have been another rushing TD in the second quarter that was waived off due to a facemask penalty, before adding a rushing touchdown before the half.
He then threw scoring third-quarter tosses to receivers Khalil Shakir and Mack Hollins, respectively, before adding the leaping fourth-quarter rushing score to finish the day with 271 total yards, 4 total touchdowns, and a 137.7 passer rating while erasing a 14-point deficit to complete the come-from-behind win.
The acrobatic aerial score caused a buzz among fans and teammates alike.
“I was like, that’s our Josh, that’s what he does man,” said DE AJ Epenesa.
“I was just screaming.” receiver Khalil Shakir shared during his postgame press conference. “True competitor. True warrior. I would follow that guy into a battle any day.”
Offensive lineman Dion Dawkins went so far as to wax poetic when describing Sunday’s Josh Allen experience.
“He continues to show the world to stop playing with his name,” the Bills tackle said. He also noted “After the National Anthem, I thought it was a flyover, I just said ‘shoot what goes up must come down’, and I hope he comes down in the endzone, and he did. You know, that big quarterback, it’s hard to stop that, especially when you’re flying. We all wish we could be like a bird, or an eagle, or shoot, even a dove, and Josh is that every game, so hey, I salute him, I’m glad he’s here, I’m glad he’s my quarterback.”
Regarding the status of the left-hand injury, head coach Sean McDermott noted to the media “Always concern (for all injuries). I’ll know more in the next couple of hours.”
Allen did manage expectations during his postgame press conference when asked to break down the hurdle play.
“Just kind of again, split-second situations,” he noted about the airborne TD with a smile. “The first rushing touchdown I kind of lowered the shoulder knowing that was a corner, the second time I know was Buddha, and Buddha’s he’s a good player and he’ll lay the boom on you so I decided to go up and over but, you know, probably can’t make a living in doing that but here we are.”
#Bills vs. #Cardinals: 3 reasons for optimism in Week 1:
The Buffalo Bills will open up the 2024 regular season at home in Orchard Park on Sunday, taking on the Arizona Cardinals at Highmark Stadium.
The two teams will meet for the first time since the Cardinals upset the Bills in the final moments of a 2020 contest with a play know dubbed the “Hail Murray.” Both clubs, however, are fielding very different teams now than when they last met.
The Bills are both a favorite to win their division as well as to make the playoffs, while the Cardinals enter Week 1 with Kyler Murray looking to bounce back from a poor season and injuries.
The Bills are playing with a renewed sense of purpose, having revamped their roster, and are looking to get their season started with a win.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen will kick off his first full season in a Joe Brady offense. The team’s offensive weaponry has been restocked and replenished to perhaps be it’s. deepest during GM Brandon Beane and HC Sean McDermott’s tenures.
Will the results show early or will it take time? The good money is on the Bills picking up where they left off last season, tailoring schemes to opponents, finding the open targets in the passing game, and openings for ground gains.
In the air, players like receiving tight end Dalton Kincaid and slot receiver Khalil Shakir can provide reliable targets, opening up opportunities for veteran TE Dawson Knox and free agent addition WR Curtis Samuel, as well as rookie wideout Keon Coleman.
On the ground, Buffalo boasts its most robust rushing group in the Beane/McDermott era as well, as Brady’s rushing attack has mobilized Allen and RB1 James Cook, who are now joined by Samuel’s backfield gadgetry (which was previously maximized under Brady in Carolina,) and by rookie receiving running back Ray Davis. Add the bolstering to the teams’ O-line the past two offseasons, and the offense may be better in 2024.
While the team’s newer additions may take a little time to adjust to the Bills’ offense or, for rookies, the pro level, their talent and skills will come into play early, and returning players should keep things rolling with Allen leading the charge.
Defensive Turnovers
(Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)
Under McDermott, the Bills have consistently fielded a competitive defense that, at times, has been among the top in the NFL in different categories.
This offseason has seen much turnover in personnel on both sides of the ball, and yet another injury to impact linebacker Matt Milano that will keep him sidelined until at least December if not the entire 2024 regular season.
Even still, Buffalo has some bright spots from the potential emergence of DE Greg Rousseau as a dominant pass-rushing threat to a return-to-form from OLB Von Miller, the assertion of LB Terrel Bernard to defensive captain to the depth in the secondary group.
The potential to impact games in all three phases has grown exponentially in terms of talent on the defensive roster, and we may see those results early and often this season. And that may come from scoring defensive points, forcing turnovers and changes in possession, and dominating the possession time which can be game changers.
Those groups will be tasked with containing Murray, as well as limiting the impact of TE Trey McBride and the Cardinals running backs group. Not to mention their new WR1 Marvin Harrison Jr.
In facing Murray, it also doesn’t hurt that the Bills have had past success defending mobile quarterbacks such as Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilson, Tua Tagovailoa, and Patrick Mahomes.
Coaching Impact
(Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)
McDermott will tentatively be unburdened with shouldering both head coach and playcalling duties as newly promoted DC Bobby Babich will get his first regular-season look running the defense.
The Bills head coach and his staff have worked to improve this offseason in areas that include challenges, and while they have new coordinators on both sides of the ball, their OC has seen success in the role at both the collegiate and pro levels and their staffs on both sides of the ball have seen some replenishment as well.
McDermott’s experience and success during his Bills tenure and emphasis on winning in all three phases give him and his team a competitive advantage following an offseason committed to improvement from the top down. Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon, meanwhile, has only one unceremonious season under his belt that featured a mixture of growing pains of a roster in transition peppered with some bright spots.
How much did the Arizona Cardinals pay DE JJ Watt?
A lot of probable reasoning behind the Bills not signing JJ Watt was the financial aspect of it. Reportedly Watt landed a two-year deal with the Cardinals worth $31 million.
Thanks to our friends at Cards Wire, we know a bit more about the details behind those numbers now.
In that $31M, we already knew that $23M was part of guaranteed money. Additionally, Watt gets a $12 million signing bonus. With a base value of $14.5 million in 2021, it means his salary for this coming season is $2.5 million. That means $13.5 million in salary in 2022.
Furthermore, via Cards Wire:
He has $3 million tied to the number of sacks he has. If he has at least 10 sacks this season, he will earn a $1 million bonus and his 2022 salary will go up by $1 million. He can also earn $1 million extra if he also has at least 10 sacks in 2022.
Based on the initial report of $23 million in guaranteed money, it would appear his 2021 salary is guaranteed and $8.5 million of his 2022 salary is fully guaranteed or at least will be at a certain date.
Finally, Watt’s salary cap number. If there are no void years post 2022, his 2021 cap hit will be $8.5M ($6M signing bonus proration and $2.5M salary) and could reach $9.5M if he hits his bonus. In 2022, his salary cap hit will be $19.5M (or $20.5M if he has 10 sacks this season).
While that figure might appear high, as long as fans get back into stadiums during the 2021 NFL season, the salary cap will probably revert back to a higher number from the $180M salary cap floor teams are currently working with, perhaps ever surpassing $200M.
Cards Wire has also reported that Watt has a no-trade clause attached to the deal as well. On only a two-year deal that seems like a no big deal, though.
All in all, if the Bills were in on Watt until the end? This is the deal that Buffalo was no comfortable with signing.
Arizona Cardinals sign JJ Watt, not the Buffalo Bills, here’s why.
The Buffalo Bills did not land free agent defensive end JJ Watt. On Monday, Watt finally ended his two-plus week free agency circus by signing with a bit of a surprise team, the Arizona Cardinals.
The Cards were seldom mentioned in the arena for Watt’s services, so the 31-year-old taught many a good lesson on not always believing everything you’re told.
But in the end, there had to be reasons why he picked Arizona over the likes of Buffalo and others, right? Here’s a quick rundown of a few of those:
Arizona Cardinals DE JJ Watt on WR DeAndre Hopkins against the Buffalo Bills.
It might have been inadvertently, but new Cardinals pass rusher JJ Watt kind of rubbed a sore spot for Buffalo during his introductory press conference in Arizona on Tuesday.
Over the past two-plus weeks, no NFL free agent was pursued more than the three-time Defensive Player of the Year. Watt, 31, had numerous teams said to be interested in him, including the Bills. Instead, he went to the Cards, who really weren’t often linked to him.
What perhaps made a different for Watt, made a big difference for the Bills on once day in particular during the 2020 regular season.
Remember how Buffalo lost to Arizona? The final play?
… Yeah…
With the Cardinals, Watt re-joins a locker room with wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, his former teammate with the Houston Texans. Watt admitted the Cards having Hopkins helped with his decision. The two are friends, and when discussing how talented Hopkins is on the field, Watt made reference to a moment that the Bills are all too familiar with: the “Hail Murray” touchdown pass he caught against Buffalo to sink the Bills.
“It doesn’t hurt to have a guy that can catch a ball anywhere on the field and score touchdowns and catch a Hail Mary over three guys. That doesn’t hurt either to have on our team,” Watt said. “It’ll be nice to have a little Gatorade on the bench and watch them go to work.”
From the top rope by Watt, dang.
In time, that comment will mean little. As a NFC team, the Bills won’t be crossing paths with the Cardinals, most likely, for awhile.
Elaborating further, Watt also mentioned that his decision came down to about four or five teams in the end and said it was “certainly close” between them. Just days prior to Watt signing on Monday, the Bills were said to be “serious contenders” for him. So much for that…
And naturally, just the cherry on top, Watt just had to tout the weather being nice and warm in Arizona, didn’t he?
“I’m also not going to lie to you, it doesn’t hurt when it’s 65 degrees and sunny outside when I woke up this morning. It was pretty nice,” Watt said. “The more I looked at it, the signs just kept pointing down here.”
As if Buffalo needed more reason to be disappointed in Watt, he goes and does this…
Former Buffalo Bills DT Jordan Phillips on Arizona Cardinals signing J.J. Watt.
Former Bills defensive tackle Jordan Phillips was feeling good on Monday when his team signed pass rusher JJ Watt.
Who would blame him? Put yourself in his shoes.
Phillips, who signed with the Cardinals last offseason, got some reinforcements via Watt. With a three-time Defensive Player of the Year on the Arizona defensive line with him? Phillips knows there’s going to be a ripple effect and it’s probably going to benefit him.
Just like a fan might, Phillips took to his social media account via Twitter with excitement after hearing the news. He was pumped, and Phillips made this exact point:
The Cards signing Watt kind of came out of nowhere. The Bills, along with teams like the Browns and Packers were connected to Watt for several weeks. The Cardinals… weren’t really mentioned… at all.
The perfect storm evidently happened to some sour grapes in Buffalo and folks let Phillips know. In replying to Phillips’ above tweet, some even went as far as saying Phillips will be cut to make room for Watt.
That’s not very nice, guys.
That prompted Phillips to send a follow up… and it appears Phillips sure did see many of the messages sent his way from western New York:
If I would’ve known the mafia was so mad about JJ joining az would’ve never tweeted jeez
NFL Network recently broke down the wide receiver situation for every team in the league. For the Bills… things are going well.
Cynthia Frelund conducted this exercise and in it, the football analytics expert had an interesting nugget of comparison for the Bills.
When Buffalo acquired Stefon Diggs last offseason, another big-named wideout was on the move around the same time. The Arizona Cardinals acquired DeAndre Hopkins via another trade.
When things went down, some thought the Cardinals got the better player. Both players are elite playmakers, but looking back on the two deals, NFL Network’s numbers indicate that the Bills actually got the better deal.
Frelund highlighted in her findings:
Ahead of last season, it seemed like DeAndre Hopkins to the Cardinals would have a much bigger impact, but my math shows that Diggs finished 2020 with a slightly higher share of wins added (1.485) than Hopkins (1.482). This is even more impressive when you consider the Cardinals secured Hopkins from the Texans for dirt cheap; Diggs managed to overperform the high expectations set by the trade terms with the Vikings (four draft picks, including a first-rounder). Diggs led the NFL in receptions with 127 and receiving yards with 1,535.
Hopkins still had a heck of a season. He was third in the NFL with 1,407 yards… but that’s still not as good as Diggs. Both the fancy stats and regular figures seem to back a similar picture here: Diggs was the slightly better investment.
Buffalo Bills CB Josh Norman activated from Reserve/ COVID-19 list,
Bills cornerback Josh Norman is no longer on the team’s Reserve/ COVID-19 list. The team announced that Norman was activated from it on Tuesday.
Norman tested positive for the coronavirus on Nov. 14 and was tagged with the designation. Between time spent on the Reserve/COVID-19 list and injured reserve due to a hamstring injury, Norman, who signed a one-year deal with Buffalo this offseason, has only played in three games with the team.
At that same time, cornerback Levi Wallace, safety Dean Marlowe and tight end Tyler Kroft were all also placed on the designation due to NFL safety protocol via “contract tracing.”
All four players landed on that list the day before Buffalo faced the Arizona Cardinals, which was their last game prior to their bye week. In lieu of Norman and Wallace in the lineup, rookie cornerback Dane Jackson was an emergency callup from the team’s practice squad along with cornerback Daryl Worley.
Norman, 32, has 17 tackles, two passes defended and a forced fumble this season for the Bills.
The team did not need to make a corresponding move to make room for Norman because it already had a free space on their 53-man roster.
Breaking down the Buffalo Bills’ second-half stats and in the third quarter in 2020.
2020 has been all over the place and, at times, the Buffalo Bills have done the same. But while the year that’s eventually coming to a close in the next couple of weeks has been unpredictable, observers of the Bills know exactly where Buffalo’s football team has struggled.
In somewhat of a role-reversal, the Bills offense has led the way for the team this season, carrying the Bills to a 7-3 start and first-place standing in the AFC East going into Week 12. Still, obstacles remain.
Both the Bills offense and defense has had their share of struggles in the second half of games, and more specifically, the third quarter.
Though often the Bills have built a good lead early, at halftime their opponents make adjustments which Buffalo has struggled to counter adjust to. This allows those teams to score their way back into games and threaten victory or, in some cases, win.
In terms of how much Buffalo has struggled in the third and fourth frames of games, it comes down to simple numbers.
The Bills are being outscored 76-30 in the third quarter over their first 10 games of this season. Buffalo’s loss to the Cardinals saw the Bills outscored 17-7 in that stanza. But that isn’t just a 2020 problem like most things in life seem to be… For the Bills, it dates back to 2019, too.
Since the start of last season, the Bills have given up 142 points (6th most) in the third quarter, while that 76 in 2020 leads the NFL. This season in the fourth quarter they’ve scored the most points (93) but they’ve also given up the fourth-most points (91.) It’s a tough formula to maintain, and a volatile one for success.
Head coach Sean McDermott is taking note and appears ready to tackle the third-quarter issue head-on.
“I am aware of it. I think that’s a study for the off week coming up here in the bye week to really dive down and into that and look into it and make sure we’re doing everything we can to make sure that gets better,” McDermott said prior to the bye while addressing the media.
With the 13th-most difficult remaining schedule, making adjustments to improve third-quarter performance will be important to the team’s success. From an on-field perspective, Allen said last week he knows a response is needed to how opponents are adjusting as well.
“Late, third quarter, early fourth quarter, we got to be better and find ways to move the ball,” Allen said via video conference. “If I knew I think it’d be better, it’s just game-plan adjustments the defenses are making and we have to find ways to figure it out faster… So I can have a better sense of what to do and how to get into our answers.”
In the NFL a top defense alone no longer offers the guarantees it once did, and the Bills have embraced a modern offense-heavy approach of outscoring opponents early and often, hoping to put the game out of reach.
But even if that’s the way the Bills want to continue approaching games from the onset, changes have to be made in the second half prior to the postseason. Not only do the Bills still need to string together some more wins just to get there, in the playoffs, tougher opponents will expose this.
Look no further than the Bills’ last trip to the playoffs in January. After shutting out the Texans in the first half, Buffalo surrendered 22 points in the second half and in overtime to cut their playoff dreams short in a hurry.
