What’s going on with Bills’ Von Miller? ‘I know I still can play’،
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — There’s only one team Von Miller hasn’t faced in his NFL career.
That will change when the Denver Broncos come to Orchard Park on Monday night (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN). For the first time, Miller will face the team that drafted him second overall in 2011. The passer spent 10 1/2 seasons in Denver, where he holds the all-time team sack record ( 110.5) and was named Super Bowl 50 MVP.
Buffalo, 5-4 after losing three of the last five games, needs a win Monday to keep pace in a competitive AFC. The Bills have the second-toughest schedule in the NFL over the next two months and could use Von Miller, who was one of the best defenders in the business, known for making big plays in big moments.
But Miller is still on his way back from major surgery on his right ACL following an injury he suffered against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving last year. He has now played in five games after missing four on the physically unable to play list to start the season.
His recovery continues on the field, something the Bills also saw late last season when cornerback Tre’Davious White recovered from a torn left ACL.
So far, Miller’s impact on the field has been minimal. He recorded one tackle, zero sacks and five pressures.
“I definitely want to play better this game. I felt better last game, but obviously there’s still some things I’m trying to work on,” Miller said. “But I felt good in the last match. [The Bengals game] It was the first game where I really wasn’t thinking about my knee or this or that. It was just football.”
Miller, part of the Bills’ defensive line rotation, has not played more than 26 snaps in a game. He had a minimum of six snaps in the loss to the New England Patriots in Week 7.
He now has seven consecutive games without a sack since last season, tied for the longest drought of his career (2021).
“The rushes are getting more and more physical. The angles are a lot tighter,” assistant head coach and defensive line coach Eric Washington said of Miller’s progress. “…I’m starting to see him setting up his rush combinations. The coordination. When you use his stab. When to work the top shoulder of the offensive tackle. When to counter…I’m seeing it more and more more of these things. They’re faster, they’re faster, and it’s just a matter of time.
The timing of Miller’s return in Week 5 raises questions. Miller missed all offseason programs and training camp due to his injury. Then he participated in a week of practice in which he was limited to three days before being sent onto the field to face the Jacksonville Jaguars on a turf field in London on which Bills players played. noted that it was not good to play.
“There’s no perfect solution probably because you’d like to send him to training camp. And there’s only so many padded workouts you can do,” the general manager said Brandon Beane. “… Certain elements of the game are what he needs as part of his return. We could have kept him out for two or three more weeks, had him practice more. But these game reps , he’s probably getting more out of it than he would be out of practice where contact is limited.”
Whatever the expectations for a 34-year-old passer coming off a major ACL injury, the focus has been on Miller being healthy and at his best when the team needs him most late in the season . But with so many injuries on defense – including three starters on IR – the Bills need all the help they can get right now to increase pressure on opposing quarterbacks.
Miller signed a six-year, $120 million contract in 2022 to be the impact passer the defense was missing. In his first year with the team, Miller tied for first on the team in sacks (eight) with Greg Rousseau and led the team with 38 pressures in 11 games. He also finished with the best win rate (23.6%) and pressure percentage (14.5%) on the roster.
Miller’s goal recovery time after surgery in early December was about nine months.
“You use tissue [to repair the knee] it has to — kind of what we call ‘ligamentous bonds’ — it gets stronger over time,” said Dr. James Tibone, co-director of sports medicine and orthopedic specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Los Angeles Center. “It looks more like an ACL over time and if you look at it in basic science, it takes about 18 to 24 months. But that, obviously [professional athletes are] not that long, so someone usually comes back at nine months at the earliest and usually doesn’t have very good results. It’s probably the norm after 12 months that they start to come back.”
Tibone said returning before nine months leads to a higher recidivism rate.
Miller wore a brace on his right knee during games, which he said in October would be reduced to a smaller brace after the Broncos game. The hope is that by the end of the season or the playoffs, he won’t need it at all.
This isn’t the first time Miller has dealt with a major ACL injury. In 2013 with the Broncos, he tore his right ACL but returned for the start of the 2014 season. Miller said that while he thought the recoveries would be the same, “it’s just different all around” . But his mindset on each of his injuries is the same.
“I would love to make these huge leaps and bounds every week, but the reality is I’m getting a little bit better every week,” Miller said. “I’m grateful for that and I can accept it. This is year 13 for me, and I just know how it goes. I know I can still play. I know I can still get some of the things that I’ve done in the past and the type of player I was, I know I can still be and I feel like that’s what motivates me.”
Miller said he would love to get on the field and play like the Miller of Super Bowl 50, but that’s not how bodies work.
“No matter how I try to fool myself, no matter what games I play with my mind, no matter where I am mentally, the body is just totally different,” he said. “So I can accept the kind of progress I’ve made.”
