Buffalo made mistake activating Von Miller too soon: 3 questions for Bills vs. Broncos

ORCHARD PARK - On the day the Buffalo Bills made the announcement that edge rusher Von Miller was being activated to the 53-man roster off the physically unable to perform list in time to play against Jacksonville in London, I thought they were making a mistake.

Was I right? Yeah, I think so.

Miller tore his ACL on Thanksgiving Day 2022 when he was 33 years old. He turned 34 in March while he was still in the middle of his recovery and rehab. His age was, for some reason, ignored by many who just through he’d bounce back like any other athlete.

Sign up for the Bills Blast newsletter Delivered straight to your inbox, additional Bills analysis, insight, stats, quotes and team history from Sal Maiorana

Sorry, but I never believed that for a second and for all his positivity and overflowing ebullience, Miller should not have been playing so soon and the Bills should have known this.

The year before, 26-year-old Tre’Davious White tore his ACL on Thanksgiving 2021 and he did not return to the field until, ironically, the same day Miller got hurt. A full year, and even then White was not the same player until he had another offseason of rest and build up strength prior to 2023.

I’m sure Miller was pressuring the Bills to activate him, but there was zero reason to do it. They had a 21-day practice window before they had to activate him after he came off PUP, so what was the rush? At the time the Bills were 3-1, their pass rush was going bonkers, and they didn’t need Miller to get into the lineup at far below 100%.

After the Jacksonville game, the Bills had what was supposed to be the easiest part of their schedule - games against the Giants, Patriots and Buccaneers. They could have waited for any point in that stretch to start the 21-day clock and could have given him a week or two of practice to ramp up.

Instead, he had barely two practices before the Bills flew to London, and then he played in the game. He has played in the four games since, too, and he has been probably the least impactful player on the entire defense.

Miller has played 103 snaps and he has one tackle and four QB pressures, with no sacks. He is being single-blocked on most plays and can’t even win those reps. And then on a key play right after the two-minute warning Sunday night, the Bengals had third-and-3 at the Buffalo 36. If the defense could have stopped Joe Mixon, there was a chance the offense could have gotten the ball back still down six points.

Instead, Mixon ran right through Miller’s attempt at a tackle, picked up the first down, and with the Bills out of timeouts, the game was over. Why was Miller even on the field for that play? I guess the Bills were expecting a pass, but even still, was Miller a better option over Greg Rousseau or A.J. Epenesa who were both on the sideline watching?

“I had to be a little bit wider, and I lunged out at him,” Miller explained. “I had contain on that play, just got to make that tackle. This is the best that I’ve felt. I let the coaches know during the game that I feel real good today. Physically I’m right where I want to be, making strides to be the type of player I want to be. That last play, there were other plays in the game where I thought I could’ve done better too, but that last play, I’ve definitely got to make that one.”

General manager Brandon Beane was asked earlier in the week why the Bills brought Miller back so quickly.

“There's no perfect solution, probably because you'd love to send him through training camp, and there's only so many padded practices that you can do,” he said. “And so playing on air, running the hoops, running through drills is only going to get you so far.

“It's like when guys are rehabbing, at some point the trainer and the rehab guys have to push them off to the coaches and have them doing real live football stuff. So some of the game stuff is what he needs as part of the comeback. We could have kept him out for two or three more weeks, had him practice more. But those game reps, he's probably gaining more from those than he would off of practice where contact is limited.”

Yeah, but those game reps aren’t helping the defense at all. In fact, they’re probably hurting because a player who is healthier, younger and more capable of performing right now - Rousseau, Epenesa, Leonard Floyd, Shaq Lawson, or even Kingsley Jonathan - isn’t out there.

“He's working as hard as he possibly can,” coach Sean McDermott said after the 24-18 Bengals loss. “Like I've said before, Von is Von and he is going to continue to work hard. He has that resume for a reason. He's coming off an ACL. Hopefully he continues to improve every week.”

Here are three questions heading into the Week 10 game against the Broncos:

1. Can the defense continue to overcome injuries?

Already down White, Matt Milano and DaQuan Jones, the Bills lost cornerback Christian Benford and linebacker Terrel Bernard for the entire second half against the Bengals. They also saw Micah Hyde miss 20% of the snaps because he got dinged a couple times, and Dane Jackson missed snaps at the end.

At one point, the Bills had new corners Rasul Douglas and Josh Norman, plus linebackers Dorian Williams and Tyrel Dodson all on the field at the same time. And despite those hardships, after a slow start which saw the Bengals score touchdowns on their first two possessions, the defense played well and kept the Bills in it.

Cincinnati gained 140 yards and amassed 11 first downs on those first drives in grabbing a 14-7 lead. On their final seven possessions the Bengals had only 257 yards, 12 first downs, and scored only 10 points.

“Buffalo did a great job; they don’t make it easy on you,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “Their defense played really well and made things difficult, we had to earn everything.”

2. What happened to the takeaways?

So, all that said, while the defense is holding its own these last few weeks, it is also failing miserably at creating turnovers and helping the struggling offense with some short fields to work with.

In the last four games the Bills have just one takeaway, a Jordan Poyer forced fumble against the Patriots that was recovered by Bernard at the New England 29, a huge play as it led to what should have been the Bills’ winning touchdown with 1:58 left to play. That’s it. They haven’t had an interception since Hyde picked off Tua Tagovailoa in Week 4.

“It's making plays on the ball,” McDermott said. “When you're talking about the defense, are we putting enough pressure on the quarterback? Usually turnovers happen either by a poor decision by a quarterback, and more times than not it's when you can affect the quarterback. Tonight, I didn't feel like we were able to affect him enough, especially on early downs.”

3. Would activating Leonard Fournette help the offense?

I don’t know what the 28-year-old running back has left. He wasn’t even with a team this season until the Bills signed him to the practice squad last week so he may not be ready to get a call-up until he gets more practice and conditioning.

But the way the Bills ineptly ran the ball against the Bengals, giving Fournette a shot probably wouldn’t hurt because the shine is kind of off 33-year-old Latavius Murray as James Cook’s backup. Murray’s primary role is pass protection because Cook is terrible at that, but he really hasn’t done a thing when he has touched the ball.

In the last three games Murray has 11 carries for 19 yards and four catches for 30 yards. Fournette would almost certainly provide more than that, and he has been known to be a decent pass protector.

However, fans can clamor for Fournette, but what this Buffalo offense really needs is for anyone not named Stefon Diggs and Dalton Kincaid to start doing something. The Cincinnati game was such a step back after what the passing game did against the Buccaneers when four receivers had more than 65 yards apiece.

Buffalo Bills: Offense continues to underwhelm and serious questions need to be answered

Against the Bengals, Kincaid went out for a pass 43 times and had 10 catches on 11 targets for 81 yards, while Diggs was in the pattern 41 times and had six catches on seven targets for 86 yards and a TD, plus a two-point conversion.

Everyone else? Khalil Shakir was useful as he was in the pattern 33 times and caught all four of his targets for 57 yards, but Gabe Davis ran a route 40 times and had zero catches; Deonte Harty played only three snaps and his lone target was an overthrown deep ball; and Trent Sherfield had one catch for nine yards.

McDermott had a telling quote which seemed to reflect his frustration with this issue when he said, “There were times when Josh had time back there and maybe nobody was open, but we have to wonder why no one is open when he has time.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana and on Threads @salmaiorana1. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out twice a week during the season, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills made big mistake letting Von Miller return too soon