Greg

Rousseau

Rousseau has totaled 129 tackles and 17 sacks in three seasons with the Bills while adding another 30 TFLs. The 2021 first-round pick has generated 127 pressures for his career per PFF and ranked 27th amongst EDGE rushers in pressures last season. If the Bills do exercise Rousseau’s fifth-year option, he will officially be under contract with the team through 2025.

Brugler told Duffy that Rousseau is a “high upside guy, a high ceiling player,” but notes that if an NFL team needed to draft a player for immediate use (like for a game tomorrow), the 6-foot-6, 260-pound Miami standout wouldn’t draw a first-round selection. He’s simply too raw. Said Brugler, “When he can untap that power, use that length. You got something there.” Rousseau opted out on the 2020 season earlier this summer and will rely on his breakout 2019 tape to boost him up. In that killer campaign, Rousseau logged 19.5 tackles for loss and 15.5 sacks.

Miami HC Manny Diaz announced the position change on Tuesday, with Joyner Jr. (6'2/225) moving to defensive end for depth reasons. The Hurricanes lost Gregory Rousseau last month, as the projected first-round pick opted out of playing this season sue to COVID-19 concerns. After appearing in four games and redshirting in 2018, Joyner Jr. was limited to one game last season due to injury.

Hurricanes HC Manny Diaz said earlier on Thursday when speaking on potential opt outs that he expected his entire team to show up to practice on Friday. Make that everybody minus the best player on the team, now. Rousseau (6'6/260) is a terror of an edge rusher, with Yahoo Sports’ Eric Edholm writing in early May that the Hurricanes star may have approached the “Chase Young spectrum” this fall if he had decided to play. Last season, Rousseau logged 19.5 tackles for loss and 15.5 sacks -- and did so in his first full year at the program. He figures to be in play for a top-10 selection come next spring’s draft.

Phillips was a five-star recruit for UCLA who at one point medically retired due to a host of injury concerns, but he reversed course, transferred to Miami and sat out the 2020 season to get stronger and satisfy NCAA requirements. Now 6-foot-5 and 258-pounds, he gives the Hurricanes yet another potential pass-rusher for a program that already has arguably the best 1-2 punch at defensive line in Greg Rousseau and Temple transfer/AAC Defensive Player of the year Quincy Roche. Even if Phillips is only a situational player for Miami this year, his length and quickness off the ball could be a major boon for Manny Diaz and company this fall.

Rousseau (6'6/260) utterly wrecked the ACC in Young-ian fashion last season, recording 19.5 tackles for loss and 15.5 sacks in just 529 defensive snaps. And that production came as a mere redshirt freshman. Writes Edholm, “Let’s see Rousseau do it again, but the early returns are fascinating.” With another strong season, the Miami standout may well put himself in position for a top-10 draft selection next spring, should he declare.

Rousseau (6'6/260) doesn’t barely clear the mark. With 12 sacks in 10 games, Rousseau is tied for third in the country in total sacks. The achievement is made more impressive not just because he is in a class of his own this year, but because no freshman earned over 10 sacks last season, either.

Rousseau (6'6/260) catapulted himself into second-place in sacks in the FBS with 12 total. Against Florida State on Saturday, Rousseau pulled off four sacks, completely ravaging an already shaky Florida State offensive line. Miami HC Manny Diaz even mentioned after the game that his guys, namely Rousseau, were able to tee off because Florida State had a “stationary” player at QB as opposed to the mobile guys they have seen all year. Rousseau will need to show up against Louisville next week as well to keep Miami’s bowl hopes strong.

Rousseau (6'6/250) getting the opportunity to start is something that Hurricanes fans have been waiting for. During the summer it was reported that some within the program have compared the redshirt freshman to former Miami great Calais Campbell, which is high praise given how productive Campbell was as a Hurricane. Despite being used in a reserve role during Miami’s first five games, Rousseau leads the team in sacks (4.0) and is tied for the team lead in tackles for loss (5.5). He was listed a Jon Garvin’s backup on the depth chart, but there has yet to be an official announcement as to which end (Scott Patchan being the other) Rousseau will replace in the starting lineup.

Rousseau (6'6/250), a four-star recruit out of high school, appeared in just two games last season due to an ankle injury suffered in a September win over Savannah State. Now back to full strength, the redshirt freshman defensive end is part of a rotation that’s expected to be better in 2019 despite the losses of second team All-American Gerald Willis and Joe Jackson. Upperclassmen Jonathan Garvin, Scott Patchan and Trevon Hill are also part of the rotation, but Rousseau could be the one who’s a household name nationally by season’s end.