Jim Leonhard scheme with Bills could unlock Greg Rousseau potential
· Yahoo Sports
For five seasons, Greg Rousseau has been the Bills' steadiest pass-rusher and, fairly or not, their most frustrating one. He has 36 combined regular-season and playoff sacks, an 83.0 PFF run-defense grade that ranked second in the NFL in 2025, and a four-year, $80 million extension signed in March that locked him in through Josh Allen's prime.
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What he hasn't had — yet — is a defensive coordinator built to weaponize the 6-foot-6, 266-pound frame Buffalo nicknamed him for. Groot.
Enter Jim Leonhard with a defensive scheme finally built for that very archetype.
Sean McDermott's 4-3 asked Rousseau to two-gap, set edges, and rush from a static alignment. The production was admirable — eight sacks, 55 pressures and 32 QB hurries in 2025 per PFF — but the impact never matched the salary.
Leonhard's 3-4 hybrid could unlock that. At Wisconsin from 2016-22, he turned long, rangy edges like Nick Herbig and Andrew Van Ginkel into multi-position chess pieces — stand-up rushers, spies, twist looters, occasional drop defenders. Both parlayed that tape into the NFL; Herbig just cashed in with a four-year, $100M extension from the Steelers earlier this month.
Rousseau is the prototype of that archetype, only bigger. And he's working toward seizing this new opportunity ahead.
"Everybody's just trying to get the new scheme down… and also just build that camaraderie and that 'glue' that we're going to need for the season," he said. "When it comes to the weight room, (we're) just in there just getting strong, fast, and pushing ourselves… that stuff is really important. A lot of us take pride in showing up and getting to work here at this time of year."
He's also been studying the Broncos' tape — and it shows.
The veteran tipped his hand in an early-May appearance on Cover 1 Film Room, pointing directly at the Vance Joseph/Denver template Leonhard's defense will borrow from:
"I've been watching a lot of Denver tape. Just seeing what they did and being able to watch that — I can envision our defense," Rousseau shared. "Just having that same mindset of keeping things bottled up inside, and stuffing up the run, and having more opportunities to get those second-and-longs, and those third-and-longs."
That is not a coincidence. Bradley Chubb — Buffalo's marquee free-agent signing — won 2018 Defensive Rookie of the Year in that exact system, and Leonhard's 3-4 leans on the same long-and-light edge-and-stand-up-rush principles Denver weaponized to torch Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in Week 9 last season.
The Bills didn't stop at Chubb. Brandon Beane also used the No. 35 pick on Clemson's T.J. Parker and has added to the pass rush in free agency as well.
This isn't a room asking Rousseau to step back, but one that finally gives him the rotation, the schematic disguise, and the inside-counter help that the Bills have previously sought by way of Von Miller, Leonard Floyd, and Joey Bosa.
At 26-year-old, Groot is finally now poised to look less like just a steady run-stopper and pocket-pressure player, and more like the game-wrecker the Bills drafted him in the first round and paid $80 million to unleash.
This article originally appeared on Bills Wire: Jim Leonhard scheme with Bills could unlock Greg Rousseau potential