COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Generating pressure is Von Miller’s forte.
It’s made him a Super Bowl champion. It’s made him generational wealth. It’s made him a potential Pro Football Hall of Famer someday.
The 37-year-old is holding out hope these days that his latest pressure campaign lands him back where his career started: Playing for the Broncos.
That Miller wants to return to Denver is hardly a surprise. He’s expressed a desire to do so over several recent offseasons.
Still, every time Miller returns to the Denver area, as he did this week to help more than 60 kids get free eye exams and a pair of glasses through his charity, Von’s Vision, that pull back to the orange and blue feels a little bit stronger.
“Last year I played 37 percent of the defensive snaps,” said Miller, who had nine sacks for the Washington Commanders after six the year before in Buffalo. “Thirty (percent) with the Denver Broncos and I feel like I can do the same exact thing I did with the Washington Commanders.”
Miller has talked with Denver general manager George Paton extensively over recent months and years about Miller’s desire to end up working in — and running his own — front office after he’s done playing. Broncos head coach Sean Payton coached Miller’s flag football team this spring against the U.S. national team.
Miller said his offseason has been “quiet” so far in terms of interest from teams and a week ago a league source told The Denver Post that the Broncos hadn’t expressed interest in signing Miller, but the veteran is working Paton and Payton hard.
“I lobby. I do lobby,” Miller said with a smile. “I lobby publicly, I lobby privately. I do lobby. I think there’s no question the type of environment I bring to a locker room and to a team. I don’t like to pat myself on the back, but at 37 years old I can still roll out of bed and rush the quarterback. I’m still a great guy in the locker room, I bring great energy and I’m going to make sure everybody is ready to go.”
Miller is particularly interested, he said, in working with Broncos star edge rusher Nik Bonitto and running mate Jonathon Cooper.
Bonitto is a big Miller fan and said earlier this month that, “Just to kinda be able to share a room with him would be amazing.”
Miller feels the same way about Bonitto and said he can’t shake the feeling that it would be akin to when DeMarcus Ware arrived in Denver and helped Miller channel his talent into a Super Bowl 50 victory and a long and prosperous career.
“I know (Bonitto) well,” Miller said. “Obviously, we’re not roommates or nothing like that. But we have an open line of communication and we talk about everything. To be in the locker room and to be able to pay forward what DeMarcus did for me to Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper and the rest of the young guys, I’d love to be able to do that in my twilight on the way out.”
Miller knows if the Broncos did re-sign him, there’d be massive hullabaloo. He insists that’s not what this is about. He thinks about “Von’s Vision Days” and locker room vibes and causing terror on third-and-long.
“Obviously, I wouldn’t start. Obviously, I wouldn’t play special teams,” Miller said. “But I will say, the type of room that we would have, the outside linebackers with me, Nik Bonitto, we’d be a force. Whatever coach we have going on, I would just contribute to that. The defense that we’d have. I’d love to bring back those Super Bowl 50 vibes.
“I would love to assist and be a vice president to Bo Nix and Courtland Sutton. I’ve been the guy and also I’ve been the vice president as well. I’d love to contribute to us getting back to the glory land, holding up that trophy and confetti falling again. For me, my whole entire life, I’ve helped guys be the best version of themselves and I’d love to do that back here with the Denver Broncos back home.”