I was texting with my co-host, Jeremy White on Wednesday. I had some questions about guests for the show when Jeremy sent the following text:
"VON MILLER, HOWARD.
VON MILLER."
Yes. Jeremy went all caps, so you knew it was an important text. It took me a moment to respond, because I had to make sure he was not praying for the Buffalo Bills to sign the NFL's active leader in career sacks, but excitedly telling me they had.
It felt like I just knocked down a pair of 5-hour Energy drinks.
My brain started going in a million different directions. I was thinking that I really need the season to open right now.
This signing is huge for a number of different reasons for the Bills.
Not that the Bills aren't trying to win a Super Bowl and feel like they can pull it off next season, but this was an all-in move. It was similar to what the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers did on their way to the last two Super Bowl championships, respectively.
General manager Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott believe in building a football team up front and winning the battle along the line of scrimmage.
Beane recently talked about two things you have to have to be successful in the NFL: Your top-level quarterback and guys to get to the other team's quarterback.
Miller will certainly help the Bills get to the other team's quarterback.
From an individual standpoint, Miller makes the Bills defense better. He played his age-32 season in 2021 and still had 9.5 sacks in 15 regular season games between the Rams and Denver Broncos. Miller then added four sacks in the Rams' four playoff games, two of which came in the Super Bowl LVI triumph over the Cincinnati Bengals.
Miller is the kind of defensive player who makes opposing offensive coordinators spend extra time during the week trying to come up with a plan to stop him. When you play against Miller, you need to know where he is on every snap, and have a plan in place to keep him from destroying your play call.
McDermott has not had that level of player on the defensive side of the ball in the five years he has coached the Bills.
Then there's the obvious trickle down effect.
Miller's presence will make so many other players better. If you have to worry about Miller so much, that makes life better for guys like Ed Oliver to be even more disruptive in the middle of the line. How about ends like Greg Rousseau and Carlos "Boogie" Basham? They can be more effective when teams are paying more attention to Miller.
There's another benefit for Oliver, who is coming off his breakout season in Buffalo.
Miller was credited with helping Aaron Donald become an even better player for the Rams. Donald was already the best defensive tackle in the game by far, so imagine what he can do for Oliver.
Not only does Miller bring the talent, smarts and veteran leadership, he brings with him the understanding of what it takes to win a Super Bowl - two titles for him, actually. This should be huge for a Bills team looking to win its first ever NFL championship.
Miller's signing also underscores the fact that players want to come to Buffalo now.
The Bills are a destination franchise. Free agents, top of the class free agents, are calling their agents and telling them to see if the Bills would be interested in their services. My, how times have changed.
I was thinking about doing the math to see how close we are to Week 1 and, probably, a Bills-Rams matchup in Los Angeles for the Thursday night regular season opener. It doesn't even really matter. It isn't tomorrow so it's too far away.
I'm ready to go right now.
