Early under-the-radar standouts of the current NFL season

#6 Jerry Hughes

The Buffalo Bills looked like a contender for that number one draft pick in April of next year before punching the Vikings in the mouth at their home field last Sunday and Hughes is one of those guys, who showed that he just has too much pride to let anybody push them down. In the season-opener at Baltimore he was double-teamed and chipped a lot, but crushed tight-ends and still hustled his ass off.

Since then Hughes has been a high-impact performer for these Bills – squeezing gaps and creating havoc by slanting inside against the run, consistently turning the corner on anybody leading to tackles leaving their feet and then countering that with inside moves and even take some easy underneath completions away by dropping into coverage.

The edge rusher has collected two sacks and a forced fumble, but his influence on games surpasses common statistics. According to Pro Football Focus, Hughes is tied with Khalil Mack for a league-leading 20 total pressures over the first three weeks of the season and the effort of guys like him, Trent Murphy, Lorenzo Alexander, Kyle Williams and others is what will keep this team in games.