BILLS OLB VON MILLER SUSTAINS LATERAL MENISCUS TEAR, NOT ACL
Buffalo Bills pass rusher Von Miller is set for some time on the sidelines after suffering a knee injury during the Bills’ 28-25 win against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving.
Miller suffered the injury with less than three minutes remaining in the first half when he appeared to get rolled up on a first-and-10 play at the Bills’ 16-yard line. The outside linebacker would get carted off but was pictured walking out of the X-ray room at Ford Field without a walking boot on his foot or the assistance of crutches.
Following an MRI done on Friday morning, scans confirmed Miller did not tear his ACL but doctors are reviewing other damage on his knee including his lateral meniscus to determine how much time he will miss. For now, Miller is out indefinitely but the official time period could be just a few weeks. Bills head coach Sean McDermott confirmed on Friday that Miller will not play in Buffalo’s Week 13 Thursday night road game against New England.
While the MRI confirming Miller results are good news for both the edge rusher and the Buffalo Bills, it also complicates the situation. Had Miller torn his ACL, the decision would have been simple as he would have scheduled surgery and been ruled out for the year. The former Bronco will now have surgery at some point to fix the damage but is yet to decide whether to have the procedure now or after the season.
As per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Miller will gather medical opinions about his knee injury and will make a decision about the best way to proceed after a week or two, when the inflammation has gone down and there’s more information. The injury is to the same knee that Miller tore his ACL in 2013.
Miller’s absence means the Bills will be without their most productive pass rusher for at least the start of a key stretch against AFC East opponents. The Bills play the New England Patriots next week, December 1st, before hosting the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins. Buffalo is 0-2 in division play this season.
A three-time First-Team All-Pro linebacker, Von Miller, has been extremely important for the Buffalo Bills since signing with them in the spring, and replacing him will be no easy task. The eight-time Pro Bowler has put up 38 QB pressures which rank third in the league and are almost three times the number of his closest teammates. Bills defensive linemen Ed Oliver and Greg Rousseau have put up just 12 pressures each this year.
Miller leads the Bills in sacks with eight, pass rush win rate (23.7%), and pressure percentage (14.6%). The two-time Super Bowl champion was second in the league in QB pressures going into week 12, trailing only Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons (44). Miller ended the game against Detroit with one tackle and a quarterback hit. The 33-year-old has 21 tackles (10 for loss), two passes defended, and one forced fumble in 11 games.
“[Miller’s] a future Hall of Famer for a reason,” McDermott said. “That said, we’ve got to move forward this week. And the person or the people responsible to step in and step up have got to do the job, and that’s the way it goes.”
Up on the defensive end depth chart for Buffalo are Greg Rousseau and A.J Epenesa, who were both inactive for the game on Thursday with ankle injuries. Shaq Lawson, Boogie Basham, and practice squad player Mike Love, who was elevated for the game all suited up on Thanksgiving. Without Miller, the Bills’ defense generated pressure on 32% of Jared Goff’s dropbacks while blitzing 59% of the time. Prior to Miller leaving the game, the Bills pressured Goff 18% of the time while blitzing on just 24% of dropbacks.
Bills defensive tackle Ed Oliver said after the game: “I really don’t know the status of what Von is going through, but if he misses a couple of games or whatever or if he’s playing next week, I just hope he’s still around. I hope for his presence, I hope he’s still leading us from the sidelines. [If] you got a guy like that, it doesn’t matter whether he’s playing, watching, or coaching. It doesn’t matter. Just having his presence, having his positive energy, the way he carries himself, like the messages that he portrays to us. And just having a guy like that around is infectious.”
Miller’s friend and former teammate, Odell Beckham Jr, who has still yet to sign with a team reacted to Miller’s injury by tweeting “GET RID OF TURF”. Beckham tore his ACL in the Super Bowl in February while playing on artificial Matrix Turf at the LA Rams’ SoFi Stadium.
Despite statistical analysis showing no significant difference in injuries on turf surfaces from grass surfaces, most NFL players and the NFLPA have advocated for the league to stop using artificial turf surfaces claiming those surfaces have “higher in-game injury rates” compared to all other surfaces for non-contact injuries, missed time injuries, lower extremity injuries, and foot/ankle injuries.
The Lions’ Ford Field is one among six other NFL stadiums that use slit-film surfaces. MetLife Stadium (Giants & Jets), Lucas Oil Stadium (Colts), U.S Bank Stadium (Vikings), Paycor Stadium (Bengals), and Caesars Superdome Stadium (Saints) are the other fields that use slit-film turf.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: Tennessee Titans. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.