ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Leonard Floyd is constantly trying to prove himself on the field.

“The underdog mentality carries me my whole time that I’m out there on the field," said Floyd.

Floyd is all about work. It started picking watermelons as a kid growing up in Georgia and has carried over to the football field.

“You can’t get nowhere in life without working hard for it," Floyd said. "You don’t want anything easy. Then you become complacent. Working hard keeps you on your toes and knowing that you have to come in every day with that hard hat on and that blue chip mentality to go out and get the job done.”

Floyd worked his way into being a first-round pick by the Chicago Bears in 2016, but success didn’t rise to the level of his selection. It’s four years the pass rusher bottles up and remembers now.

“I use it as a driving force every day, knowing that I can’t go back to where I was at," said Floyd. "[I've] got to fight hard every day to stay with this same mindset of getting better and grinding. Doing whatever I can to get the quarterback on the ground. It’s just keeping that same mindset and never letting it go.”

The same mindset has come with a new role for Floyd with the Bills, playing just 53% of the snaps, a drastic drop from the rest of his career.

“Every other team I’ve played on, I played all the snaps, and that kind of maybe held back from my production a little bit from playing so many snaps," said Floyd. "With playing a few snaps, I’m fresh and my production can be high, because I’m 100% when I get out there.” 

While the lesser load has been welcomed, it was an adjustment early.

“You got to get used to coming in and pitching with your best pitches as soon as coach puts you in the game rather than warming up," Floyd said. "You’ve got to come in hot.”

That is exactly what Floyd’s been through the first half of this season, leading the Bills with seven sacks, 12th in the NFL. He’s well on pace to break his career-high of 10 1/2 sacks — all while seeing the field half as much as he’s used to.

“The sky’s the limit, man," said Floyd. "The sky’s the limit. This is a position I haven’t ever been in in my whole career, being at this sack number with eight to nine games to go. Just got to go out and finish the job. Go out each game with the same mentality of getting after the quarterback and affecting the game.”