If Von Miller couldn't play quarterback, he was going to be perfectly happy sacking them

ORCHARD PARK - Von Miller was at an age where he couldn’t even read or write, yet he knew exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up: Play in the NFL.

“This has been my dream since pre-K,” Miller said. “All I’ve ever wanted to do is play in the National Football League. I’ve had some plan B’s - being a chicken farmer (he actually does have a chicken farm in Texas), being a DJ, a comedian, all this stuff. But my biggest dream was to play football.

“When they ask you, ‘What do you want to be doing when you grow up,’ I was always, ‘I want to play in the National Football League.’ That was me.”

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Ah, but here’s where the story takes a detour because, really, who wants to grow up playing defensive end? Maybe some young boys want to be the next Bruce Smith, Reggie White or Deacon Jones, but not Miller.

“You see some of these (QB) contracts? It’s crazy,” he said with a smile. “I mean, quarterback in football, it’s probably one of the marquee positions in all of sports. Guys want to be quarterbacks. If you’re a great quarterback, man, you’re one of the greatest figures in all of sports.

“I always wanted to be a quarterback. Just imagine me playing quarterback, the same Von Miller I am today. Same personality. You just take the five off (his old uniform number 58 in Denver), or you just take the eight off … ”

Oops, remembering that his new number with the Buffalo Bills is 40, he continued, “You just take the zero off and I’m number four. I definitely think I could be a quarterback, especially in today’s league where you’re scrambling around throwing the ball. God had different plans for me. I still feel like I’m one of the quarterbacks. I’m just chasing them on game day.”

There are more than 50 quarterbacks Miller has rag-dolled through the first 11 years of his career on his way to 115.5 sacks, and they all wish he had indeed grown up to play their position.

You know the now retired Phillip Rivers is nodding in agreement being that he was sacked 16 times by Miller, more than anyone else. But also agreeing would be Kyle Orton, Tyrod Taylor and Miller’s new teammate, Josh Allen - the three Bills’ QBs he sacked once each in four career games against Buffalo.

“For sure,” Allen said. “I’m thankful that he’s here. He’s been a heck of a player in this league for a long time and shows no signs of slowing down.”

Things could have worked out differently, and Thursday night when the Bills open the NFL season in Los Angeles, Miller could just as easily be lining up across from Allen as a member of the Rams rather than sharing the captainship of the Bills with the star quarterback.

After 10 ½ Hall of Fame worthy seasons in Denver, Miller was traded to Los Angeles last November and he went on to help the Rams win their first Super Bowl, recording four sacks in four postseason victories.

He entered free agency and had several suitors, but everyone thought he’d just stay in SoCal because, why wouldn’t he? Super Bowl champs. Gorgeous stadium. Beaches. Sun. Hollywood. Aaron Donald lining up next to him. And the Rams wanted him back. Seriously, why would he leave?

But he was all set to do it. The Bills were offering long-term security with a six-year, $120 million deal and that’s pretty good for a guy who was 33 years old.

However, once he took off for Buffalo, trepidation and doubt banged around in his head pretty much over every state that plane flew from the Pacific Ocean to Lake Erie. Am I crazy? Am I really going to leave Los Angeles for Buffalo?

Turned out that he wasn’t, and once he landed, he had every intention of telling the Bills thanks, but no thanks.

Was he really going to leave the glamor and glitz of LA?

“I was kind of like hesitant at first,” he recalled of his near backing out of the deal. “I just wanted to be sure in the decision I was making. And I still remember it like it was yesterday, Sean McDermott said, ‘It’s Buffalo. I know it doesn’t have the optics, but you will learn to love this place. This place will grow on you and you will love this place.’

“When he said it, I just thought it was part of the recruiting pitch. But, being here in western New York and being at home and being around the fans, going to your local restaurants here, and being around the people, being a member at Orchard Park Country Club and Crag Burn Country Club, I just feel at home. And I’ve fallen in love with this place and it just gets better and better each and every day.”

With sweaty hands, he signed the contract, and before the ink was dry, the Bills became the new favorite to win the Super Bowl because now they were adding the one piece to their roster that they had lacked for so long: A true dominant edge rusher, the kind of player teams have to account for on every play, the kind of player who would make everyone else on the defense better.

How could the oddsmakers ignore that the Bills were adding Von Miller to a defense that ranked No. 1 in both yards and points allowed in 2021, adding Von Miller to a team that has an explosive offense led by Allen, an emerging superstar? They couldn’t.

Yeah, Miller thought to himself as he went to his hotel that first night, Buffalo is the place to be. And nothing has changed since.

“Man, I love these guys,” Miller said back when the Bills’ offseason program was just getting underway and the team was convening for the first time since the disastrous playoff loss to the Chiefs. “I knew about the team, I knew about the players here, but the collection of guys, the collection of personalities is nothing like I’ve ever been on.”

That was quite a statement given that he had just left a locker room populated by Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, Cooper Kupp, Matthew Stafford, and Odell Beckham Jr. among others.

“We had a great locker room there; this locker room (in Buffalo) is great, man,” he said.

Miller had already concluded he’d made the right choice to leave the glamor and glitz of Los Angeles for the grit of Buffalo during the OTA and minicamp portion of the offseason, but then came training camp at St. John Fisher University where, just after settling into his dorm room, he publicly questioned the quality of toilet paper at the school.

Immediately, fans began sending him rolls of toilet paper and he just couldn’t believe what was going on.

“I mean fans are always great, but this is different,” he said. “You say one thing in front of the media, you don’t even expect it to blow up like it did. It blows up and you got fans reaching out in so many different volumes and so many different people just trying to help out and make your time here great. I’m appreciative of it.”

Naturally, the NFL scheduled the Bills to be the Rams’ opening night opponent Thursday at SoFi Stadium. Had Miller not signed with the Bills, maybe the Rams would be playing a different team, but here we are, and Miller can’t wait.

Rams saved him. Bills fans welcomed him.

“SoFi was a great place and coming to the Rams really saved me, it really refreshed me,” he said. “We won Super Bowl 56 and that will always be there. They will always be my teammates, but at the same time, I’m on the Buffalo Bills now and I want to create some of those same memories with my new teammates now.

“You know, the NFL is just so messy. I’m playing in the Super Bowl and then my first game back is right there with a new team. And that’s what the fans want to see. Of course there will be some emotions there. There was no reason for me to leave. I just felt like this was my place to be. And whenever you leave on those terms, it’s always going to be some weird feelings. But at the end of the day, man, they are my brothers and I know they feel the same about me.”

The Bills certainly have a strong cast of veterans on defense with players like Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Matt Milano, Tremaine Edmunds, Taron Johnson, a bunch of solid defensive linemen, and eventually, Tre’Davious White.

But none of those players or anyone else on the Buffalo roster has won a Super Bowl. Miller has won two (when he was with Denver he beat McDermott and Brandon Beane’s Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50 in February 2016), so he is now the guy they will look to to lead the way to the top of the NFL mountain.

The Bills have made the playoffs four times in McDermott’s five seasons, but the closest they came to getting to the big game was in 2020 when they lost the AFC Championship Game at Kansas City.

Last year, the consensus, certainly among Bills Mafia, was that if they hadn’t botched the final 13 seconds of regulation in Kansas City, they would have won that game, beaten the Bengals in the AFC title game at Highmark Stadium, and been the team standing opposite Miller and the Rams in the Super Bowl.

Instead, they did botch those 13 seconds, lost in overtime, and there was an awful lot of gloom and doom in Bills Country until, really, the day about two months later when the team signed Miller.

“I saw the game and I’m aware of what happened but it’s a different year,” Miller said. “You’ve just got to let it go. All Super Bowl teams, they have similarities, and success leaves clues. And as long as we just keep chipping away at it I feel like we’ll be OK. The main goal here is to win a Super Bowl and bring it here to Buffalo. Whatever my role is or whatever they ask me to do I’m going to do it 100% to get that done.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.To subscribe to Sal's new twice-a-week newsletter, Bills Blast, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Von Miller returns to Los Angeles as Rams host Bills in season opener