The Buffalo Bills saw flashes of the old Von Miller last season, but opposing quarterbacks never felt him and offensive coordinators didn’t fear him.
Whether it was the effects of ACL surgery, age or both, Miller didn’t look like the player who has built a Hall of Fame resume. He made three tackles in 12 games, had three quarterback hits and did not record a sack for the first time in his career.
The eternal optimist who hasn’t wavered on his belief that the Bills can win a Super Bowl said his outlook was dented a bit during a season filled with injuries, a domestic violence arrest and a healthy scratch in Week 17. Buffalo views him as healthy now and it needs him to produce.
Buffalo is married to the 35-year-old Miller, who carries a $15.154 million cap hit, for at least one more season, and since salary cap constraints limited free agent acquisitions, the Bills need at least some version of the old Miller.
“At the end of the day, that’s all I got, is my optimism and my faith,” Miller said. “I know what I can do, what I can still do at the end of the day and you just got to keep pushing. And whenever God says it’s over with, then it’ll be over with. But I still feel like I got a couple of more years left.”
On the surface, Miller looked perfectly healthy even before he was taken off the physically unable to perform list in Week 5. He was thick and muscular, making him appear bigger than his 6-foot-3, 250-pound frame.
But when the ball was snapped, it was clear that Miller wasn’t utilizing all the tricks that got him to 123 ½ career sacks and a Super Bowl MVP. Miller’s unique ability to turn the corner on his signature dip-and-bend move wasn’t there often, nor was his backup, in which he punches through the arms of a tackle and keeps him at bay, using his right leg to gain leverage and shifting his balance to his left leg without losing speed around the corner.
Unlike many pass rushers, Miller doesn’t always line up on the blindside of the quarterback. In fact, he has lined up on the left side of the defense 75% of the time during his career and he has torn his right ACL twice during his NFL career, including in 2022 with the Bills.
Miller uses that right leg to plant on his signature dip, which gets him below the reach of the offensive tackle, putting him at an angle most humans couldn’t dream. It also takes ankle flexibility and he missed the entire 2020 season with a dislocated peroneal tendon in his left ankle and has not recorded double-digit sacks since, although he was on track after putting up eight sacks in 11 games in 2022.
“Von’s working hard to get back,” Bills defensive coordinator Bobby Babich said. “The expectation is that minute by minute, we’re just continuing to get better and continuing to hone back in on the skills and to train the skills that are needed for him to impact the game like we need him to.”
Where the Bills need him to be and what’s realistic may be different, because getting double-digit sacks at 35 years old is a rarity. It’s been done 19 times by 12 players in NFL history, but they all had one commonality: durability.
Seven of those players are Hall of Famers — including Bruce Smith — and they combined to play 94% of the available games during their careers. Miller has missed 32 games (18%) due to injury during his career and 28 of them have come since he turned 30 years old.
“Everything revolves around my health and the way my knee is feeling,” Miller said. “So far I’ve been feeling great. I’ve been practicing without a knee brace and that’s something I just could not do last year. … I think my last three games of the season — Miami, Pittsburgh and Kansas City — were my best games of the year. … I’m just trying to use that to springboard into the season.”