Getty Von Miller of the Los Angeles Rams holds up the Vince Lombardi Trophy after Super Bowl LVI.
There are always plenty of “what ifs” scenarios for NFL teams, but Buffalo Bills star Von Miller just dropped another one on the Dallas Cowboys fanbase.
The Cowboys are coming off a spring that saw them announce that defensive end Randy Gregory was re-signing a new, big contract, only for him to bail and sign the same deal with the Denver Broncos instead.
Now, the Broncos’ former defensive end, Miller, is talking about what could’ve been. The 33-year-old tested free agency this spring and signed a new contract with Buffalo after winning the Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams last season. According to Miller, he was almost a Cowboy.
According to a screenshot from @jpafootball, Miller posted a photo with Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons with the caption “damn @_micahparsons11 It almost happened.”
#Cowboys fans won’t like this one
That’s a tough pill to swallow for Dallas fans. Any team would like to employ Miller’s services, and the future Hall of Famer was almost “born” to play for owner Jerry Jones and the Cowboys.
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Miller’s Texas Background Leads to NFL Dominance
Before he was a national star, Miller had been turning heads in Texas for decades. Growing up in DeSoto and attending DeSoto High School, Miller made waves as a high school player and took his talent to Texas A&M.
As an Aggie, Miller had one of the most impressive pass-rushing seasons in college football history. SR shows that in 2009, he put up 17 sacks as a junior, which is still tied-for-sixth since the stat has been recorded. He followed with 10.5 in 2010, and that led to Denver selecting him as the second overall pick in the 2010 NFL draft.
His time in the league doesn’t need much explanation. In 10 seasons in the league, Miller has only totaled less than eight sacks in one year, back in 2013 when he was injured and “only” had five sacks in nine games.
He’s averaged 11.55 sacks per season, and isn’t dropping far with age. After missing the 2020 season, Miller rebounded with 8.5 sacks over his two teams in 2021 and was a major factor in the Rams winning the Super Bowl.
New Cowboys Pass Rusher Ready for Challenge
So while Miller is in New York for the immediate future, Dallas signed a different former Rams defensive end in Dante Fowler Jr. Fowler obviously doesn’t have the resume that Miller does, but he does an 11.5-sack season in the NFL, which occurred with the Rams in 2019.
After an unsuccessful run with the Atlanta Falcons, Fowler has arrived in Dallas to reunite with defensive coordinator Dan Quinn. According to Spotrac, the 27-year-old defensive end is on a “prove-it” contract, playing on a one-year, $3 million deal.
Of course, Fowler wants to build on that contract for a bigger and better deal in 2023. Preferably, he’d want that contract to come from the Cowboys than someone else.
“I would love to be a Cowboy long term,” Fowler. said, according to The Athletic reporter Jon Machota. “But right now, I just want to come in here and contribute and do what I have to do for the team so we can get these wins and get to the Super Bowl.”