Von Miller thought about coming back to the Rams, the team he won a second Super Bowl ring with just last month. He considered a return to Denver, too. But when push came to shove, he found he wanted to go to Buffalo, for himself as much as anything else.
“I feel like I let [the Rams] down,” Miller told reporters. “I feel like I’m breaking up with my girlfriend. That’s just me and the way I go about my business. But this was one time in my life where I had to make a decision for me.”
Miller inked a six-year, $120 million deal — $51 million in guaranteed money — with the Bills on Thursday. He expects to get another ring in addition to the money.
“[The Bills] are gonna win a Super Bowl with or without me,” Miller said. “They’ve built an amazing team.”
Buffalo followed an AFC title game appearance in 2020 with an 11-6 record, AFC East title and divisional round exit in an instant classic against the Chiefs in 2021. They do indeed seem to be on the cusp of something special.
Miller, a former Super Bowl MVP who had 9.5 sacks last season, can help them get there.
“It had to be the Buffalo Bills,” Miller said. “What they’ve created here — it had to be the Bills Mafia. This environment that they’ve created here, it drawed me away from that. It’s not gonna be the weather. The weather is gonna be the weather. But what they’re doing inside this facility, what they’re doing in this community, what they’re doing on the football field and off the football field, man, I had to be a part of it.”
Miller came into free agency expecting to eventually return to the Rams. But was ultimately enticed by the prevailing notion that he could win his third title in Buffalo.
“I saw what makes Aaron Donald Aaron Donald, and it was hard to walk away from that,” Miller said. “The only way you can walk away from that is to walk into something special. And what they’re doing here is extremely special.”