Motivated to return to pre-injury form, Von Miller’s Bills tenure has been caught in a tangled web of disappointment
Buffalo Bills edge rusher Von Miller is staring down the challenge of a comeback season as a 35-year-old two-time Super Bowl winner and Super Bowl 50 MVP, who’s been a perennial All-Pro and Pro Bowl player. Miller’s bust in Canton’s NFL Hall of Fame is a matter of when, not if. Upon retirement, the clock will begin counting down the time until voters can induct Miller as one of the modern era’s premiere edge rushers.
Before all that can happen, Miller has urgent business at hand in reminding people about those traits that made him such a feared defender on every snap. It’s not going to come easy, as with a season removed from a devastating ACL injury and repair also comes declining overall function in the form of an aging professional football player.
No one would expect Von Miller to be the same player who won Super Bowl MVP nine seasons ago. That’s unfair to Miller and unrealistic to make such demands. Father Time has entered the chat, and that’s bound to frustrate Miller.
The ACL injury suffered two seasons ago on Thanksgiving remains an albatross that Von Miller can’t escape. Sure, Miller made his return last season, but he only managed to play in 12 regular-season games in place of his predicted Week 1 return. According to Pro Football Reference, Von Miller’s 2023 totals amounted to one individual tackle, two assisted tackles, and three quarterback hits. Tackles and hits, not sacks. Five bits of stats in 12 games.
Miller never looked right, barely even a shell of his former All-Pro self for the duration of the 2023 regular season. In fairness, he seemed to turn a corner once the playoffs began. But it wasn’t profound as he recorded a single solo tackle and one assisted tackle. There were specific plays where the juice seemed to have returned, notably against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
None of the above is why Von Miller was brought to Orchard Park, NY to play football for the Buffalo Bills. General manager Brandon Beane awarded Miller a handsome contract to come in and play the role of closer, a position notably absent in their biggest games — specifically those against the Kansas City Chiefs.
During his first campaign with the Bills in 2022, Miller’s addition proved fruitful both on the field and as a mentor/teacher in practice settings. Other defensive linemen excelled, with defensive tackle Ed Oliver looking thoroughly unblockable at times. The attention paid to Miller freed up plenty of other players to make plays.
Unfortunately, Miller’s 2022 season ended after only 11 games, with the Bills and their fans left wondering “what if” had things gone differently. Miller finished the campaign with 21 tackles (18 solo), 10 tackles for loss, 12 quarterback hits, eight sacks, two pass defenses, and 1 forced fumble.
Always the optimist, Miller predicted a return by Week 1 of 2023, but reality had other plans. And when he did return, it was in an extremely limited capacity — while at the expense of other players. Von Miller’s optimism has landed him in hot water with Bills Mafia, previously as it related to recruiting players like wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. — and now with a clear overshot in diagnosing his knee health.
With training camps set to begin in a few weeks, Von Miller is ready to re-write the narrative. He’s keenly motivated and outwardly intent on righting the wrongs of last season where his production went completely off the rails playing on a reconstructed knee.
An elite competitor, Miller has recently expressed public frustration about the entire injury situation from 2022. In an interview with Pat Benson of Sports Illustrated, Miller admitted that he probably shouldn’t have played at all last season. That’s unlikely to sit well with many members of Bills Mafia, but sitting out the year was never in the cards.
Telling SI about his goals for the upcoming season, Miller stated:
“My biggest individual goal is just getting back to playing my style of football. It’s crazy how you get injured, and you come back, and you really shouldn’t have even been playing, and people judge you by a product on the field. I could have easily sat out all of last season, but I couldn’t do my teammates like that. I felt like being later in my career, I didn’t want to sacrifice any of my years. But at the same time, I shouldn’t have been out there.”
“I feel like people are judging me on that, so it’s making me a little bit angry, to be honest. It’s making me tap into a Von that I haven’t been in a while. I just want to get back to playing my style of football. Get back to talking s***, f****** making sacks, dancing, and making plays for my teammates. That’s been my whole mindset this offseason.”
“The biggest team goal is bringing the first Super Bowl to Buffalo. Everyone feels like they deserve it, and they work hard, but Buffalo Bills fans and Western New York they deserve it, man. They do so much for our community and our football team. Josh Allen is an amazing player and person - he is one of the most amazing people that I have ever been around in my life. These guys deserve it, and I’m going to do everything in my power to give it to them.”
As part of a series of contract restructures by One Bills Drive this past spring, Von Miller agreed to a pay cut, lowering his base compensation from $17.145 million in 2024 to $8.5 million. In breaking down Miller’s renegotiated contract, Buffalo Rumblings dove into the finer details of an incentive-loaded deal that will reward Miller for production this coming season.
Von Miller understands he has a lot of work to do to return to form, and to create the opportunity he seeks for his teammates and Buffalo’s incredible fan base. You can be sure Miller strives to live up to the other-worldly expectations put upon his shoulders, and to, in time, reward those who remain in his corner.
Perception is often everything with public figures, and right now many people have a negative view of Von Miller — mostly due to an injury he couldn’t avoid and his return-to-play path. His anger is understandable, but the key is to harvest that into a positive outcome, where too often anger over public perception can serve as a dividing and detrimental force to a marquee player in the pinnacle of their sport.
Above all else, it’s past time for Von Miller to let his play do the talking.