Buffalo Bills 'Panic Time'? Von Miller Admits 'It's Close'

Buffalo Bills 'Panic Time'? Von Miller Admits 'It's Close'

Von Miller is in the midst of his 12th NFL season, and has seen all the highs and all the lows in his travels, which of course now has him established as a team leader with thew Buffalo Bills.

That earns him the right to be both optimistic and honest about where the 5-4 Bills are at this moment as they trail the Miami Dolphins in the AFC East and are at this very moment on the outside of the NFL playoff picture, looking in.

“It’s not time to issue the alarm,'' Von said this week. "But it’s close.”

Interpret that as you wish. Spin that as you wish. Is Miller dismissing the idea of panic-level urgency? Or by even putting it into words at all, is he conceding to panic-level urgency?

Maybe it's somewhere in between.

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Miller ranks 19th all-time among NFL players in sacks and has two Super Bowls to his credit, most recently as a member of the Los Angeles Rams and before that as a member of the 3-5 Denver Broncos, this week's Monday night foe at Highmark Stadium.

The concern level is such that the Bills this week conducted a players-only offensive meeting.

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QB Josh Allen's view of it all? "We've got our best football to play, it's in front of us," Allen said. "We're not going to let the fact that we're 5-4 divide us apart. ... We're trying to find a way through it."

Miller has yet to record a sack this year as he continues to play through his recovery from a Nov. 2022 ACL tear. He missed the first four games of the season but last week played about one-third of the snaps in the Bills' 24-18 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.

"I feel better every week," Miller said. "I would love to take these huge leaps and bounds each and every week but the reality is, I'm just getting a little bit better each and every week and I'm grateful for that. I know I can still play, I know I can still recapture some of the things that I did in the past and the type of player I was."

Is it time to panic? Maybe not. Is it time for Von Miller to make the sort of massive impact to which he is accustomed? The timing of that happening on Monday would be just right.