While Bills quarterback Josh Allen is the leading candidate to be the league’s MVP, his teammate linebacker Greg Rousseau is making an early case for Defensive Player of the Year.
Rousseau had two sacks in each of the Bills’ three games, making him the third player since sacks became an official statistic in 1982 to have multiple sacks in the first three games of a season. The others are Mark Gastineau with the 1984 Jets and Kevin Greene with the 1998 Panthers.
Greene had multiple sacks in each of the Panthers’ first four games in 1998, so Rousseau could tie Greene’s record of two sacks Sunday against the Patriots, and break the record with two sacks in each of the next two games.
Rousseau’s six sacks are the most of any player in the NFL this season, and he also leads the league with eight tackles for loss and three forced fumbles. He is currently sixth in Defensive Player of the Year odds at +1500, behind Houston’s Will Anderson at +300, Detroit’s Aidan Hutchinson at +750, Pittsburgh’s TJ Watt at +900, Las Vegas’s Maxx Crosby at +1200 and Minnesota’s Dallas Turner at +1300.