- Deone Walker leads qualifying defenders: The Bills interior defender has earned a league-high 92.9 PFF pass-rush grade through three weeks while generating 14 pressures.
- Greg Rousseau has produced off the edge: Rousseau has recorded 22 pressures and six sacks while earning a 90.2 PFF pass-rush grade.
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The Buffalo Bills may have quietly built a very productive pass-rushing duo.
Through three weeks, Deone Walker and Greg Rousseau have combined for 36 pressures and eight sacks, with both ranking among the NFL’s five highest-graded pass-rushers.
Walker has been the bigger surprise of the two so far. The 6-foot-7, 331-pound interior defender has earned a 92.9 PFF pass-rush grade that leads all qualifying defenders through three weeks, putting him ahead of star players such as Aidan Hutchinson (91.5) and Will Anderson Jr. (91.0).
Walker, a second-year player who was drafted in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL Draft, has already racked up 14 pressures, including two sacks, two hits and 10 hurries. His 16.3% pressure rate ranks third at his position and is impressive enough on its own, but it looks even better when considering that he has been double-teamed on 61.6% of his pass-rush snaps.
Across 86 pass-rush snaps, Walker has recorded a 16.9% pass-rush win rate, which ranks eighth among qualifying interior defenders. He has also tallied three batted passes, the second-most at the position.
Rousseau, meanwhile, has picked up where he left off as Buffalo’s premier edge defender.
The sixth-year pass-rusher has turned 104 pass-rush snaps into 22 pressures and six sacks, earning a 90.2 pass-rush grade that ranks fourth among qualifying defenders. He has also won 25.5% of his pass-rush reps, which ranks second among edge defenders behind only Aidan Hutchinson, while generating pressure on 21.2% of those snaps, tied for second at the position.
That gives Buffalo two pass-rushers winning in very different ways.
Rousseau has been one of the league’s most productive edge rushers, while Walker has immediately provided the Bills with a disruptive presence inside. And although Walker’s smaller workload makes any direct comparison with the league’s established stars imperfect, his production through three weeks has been impossible to miss.
Buffalo Bills defensive linemen: week 1-3
| PLAYER | Pass-rush snaps | Pass-rush grade | Sacks | Hits | Hurries | Pressures | Pass-rush win rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deone Walker | 86 | 92.9 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 14 | 16.9% |
| Greg Rousseau | 104 | 90.2 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 22 | 25.5% |
| DeWayne Carter | 42 | 73.2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 8.1% |
| Ed Oliver | 64 | 66.9 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 10.5% |
| Greg Gaines | 31 | 64.4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10.7% |
| Bradley Chubb | 94 | 59.2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 13 | 11.8% |
| T.J. Parker | 22 | 57.6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10.5% |
| Michael Hoecht | 52 | 54.3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 6.3% |
| Landon Jackson | 39 | 53.8 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2.8% |
There is still a long way to go, but the early returns are about as encouraging as Buffalo could have hoped for: Walker owns the NFL’s highest pass-rush grade, Rousseau ranks fourth among edge rushers, and the pair has already combined for 36 pressures.
For a Bills defense looking for ways to consistently affect opposing quarterbacks, that’s a fairly good place to start.
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