When fans ultimately look back on Von Miller’s lauded professional career, they will remember one of the most heralded pass rushers in NFL history, an immensely influential defender who earned countless accolades during his immensely productive decade-plus career.

With that in mind, it might be a bit surprising to realize that entering the Buffalo Bills’ recent Week 1 clash against the Arizona Cardinals, he hadn’t recorded a sack since Nov. 13, 2022. He tore his ACL roughly two weeks after that date in a Thanksgiving Day clash with the Detroit Lions, an ailment that sidelined him for the remainder of the 2022 season and the first four games of the 2023 season. He appeared to be a ghost of his former self upon his eventual return, and at times was more of a liability to Buffalo’s defense than an asset, finishing the season with just three tackles and zero sacks.

Bills leadership claimed to see signs of the old Miller as the season progressed, paving the way for a 2024 offseason that saw several people within the organization note that he had fully recovered from his 2022 injury. But talk can’t go far enough; members of the Buffalo faithful were eager to see Miller perform in the team’s Week 1 game against the Cardinals, to see if the NFL’s active all-time sack leader Real whether he would return to form or whether he would, once again, be an expensive and unimportant rotational defender.

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He has largely achieved that.

The 35-year-old totaled two tackles in the win and was credited with a sack on a play in which he pushed Arizona tackle Kelvin Beachum back to quarterback Kyler Murray. It wasn’t the most elegant or scenic sack of Miller’s career, but it was his first in nearly two years, a quarterback takedown that got the proverbial monkey off his back and could set the stage for a 2024 comeback.

Miller played a crucial role in a Buffalo pass rush that bounced back from a poor start against the Cardinals, finishing the game with four total sacks (Greg Rousseau tallied the other three). The veteran spoke about his sack and the overall performance of the defensive front after the game, telling reporters that this takedown felt a little different.

“It felt good,” Miller said. “You think about it for so long, you think about it all last year, and then when you get injured, ‘can’t wait to get a sack, can’t wait to get a sack,’ and then when you get the sack, it’s just business as usual. You act like you’ve been there before.

“I’m not going to lie, it definitely felt good after the type of season that I had and the type of season that we all had last year, to come in here and get multiple sacks and really do what we do and go out there and show everything that we’ve been working on during the offseason, it definitely feels good.”

Few expect Miller to return to being the dominant pass rusher who once easily put together double-digit sack seasons, but a return to form and once again being a reliable member of the defensive front would give Buffalo’s defense a huge boost. Single-game samples are often misleading, but it appears the veteran will be productive again this fall; he’ll get his next chance to torment opponents when the Bills take on the Miami Dolphins in a Week 2 clash on Thursday night.

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