Dareus Earns Defensive Player Of Week

While Terry and Kim Pegula understandably dominated the Wednesday Western New York sports headlines, there’s more good news to come from One Bills Drive.

The league announced that Bills defensive tackle Marcell Dareus has earned AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors following his standout effort against the Detroit Lions last Sunday.

Dareus had a career-high three sacks to go with five overall tackles and a forced fumble that helped key the Bills to a road comeback 17-14 win over the Lions.

He’s the first Bills player to earn the honor since Mario Williams won it in Week seven last year against Miami.

It’s the first Player of the Week award of Dareus’ career, who now has a sack in three straight games. It’s quite the turnaround for Dareus, who found legal trouble off the field twice during the offseason and showed up to training camp out of shape and subsequently failed his conditioning test; a combination that led some to speculate his release from the team might be imminent.

Truth is the third overall pick in the 2011 NFL draft has been a force since entering the league.  His 23.5 sacks since 2011 ranks second among NFL defensive tackles to only Geno Atkins (Cincinnati), who has 26.

The Bills need Dareus to remain in top form when they host a critical divisional game against the New England Patriots on Sunday.