Von Miller played like an over-the-hill edge rusher last season, making no starts, playing 12 games and seeing action on 32 percent of the snaps. He had no sacks, three quarterback hits and three tackles in his second season in Buffalo.
Miller revealed Thursday that he “probably should not have played” last season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee on Thanksgiving 2022.
"[Sitting out] is probably what should have happened, but I didn’t want that to happen,” Miller said, via Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN. “I wanted to be out there and play. If I was 50 percent, like, nobody was going to stop me from going out there. [Bills General Manager Brandon] Beane wasn’t; nobody was going to stop me from going out there. But the truth, just being honest with you guys, my knee wasn’t at a place where I could go, and I could move, and I could do the things that I wanted to do. I mean, I could play, but that was just about it. “
Miller, 35, has seven double-digit sack seasons and 123.5 career sacks. He finished with no sacks for the first time 2020 when he missed the entire season with an ankle injury.
“I’m Von Miller. I’m kind of measured by sacks,” Miller said of his performance last season. “I only know one way to view things, and that’s the most optimistic way, and I wanted it to go better than what it was. I wanted to go out there and get 15 sacks. That’d put me in the top-10 all time. I wanted all of those things to happen, but the universe just had other plans for me and nothing in life is by coincidence, so I’m here now, year three [with the Bills]. I’m feeling good, and I’m ready to go.”
Miller finally felt like himself in the divisional round of the playoffs, and he looked more like himself in that game. He made two tackles in 15 snaps.
He calls himself fully healthy now and is practicing without limitation again. But it’s a big season for him if he is to get another opportunity next season to reach his goal of the top 10 on the all-time sacks list, with 15 sacks unlikely this season. Miller has not had more than 9.5 sacks in a season over the past five seasons.