Von Miller has been that dude for years—wrecking QBs, stacking rings, and making offensive coordinators stress-eat before games. Peyton Manning once said, “People ask me a lot of times, ‘Who’s the best athlete you’ve ever played with?’ And I say, ‘Von Miller.’ Just some of the things he can do physically is special.” That’s not just respect—that’s GOAT talk.

But in the NFL, even legends get hit with reality checks. Buffalo just served Miller a brutal one.

Von Miller was supposed to be the missing piece when he signed that bag—a six-year, $120 million deal in 2022. But honestly? His time in Buffalo was straight-up cursed. It started with a torn ACL on Thanksgiving against the Lions, which wiped out the rest of his 2022 season.

Right now, in 2025? The Bills officially cut him loose, freeing up $8.4 million in cap space but also taking a massive $15.4 million dead cap hit. Yikes. This move screams, ‘We need a reset‘ as Buffalo tries to shake off yet another playoff disappointment and rework their defense.

The previous years aren’t the greatest as well. In 2023, and well… it wasn’t pretty. His numbers fell off a cliff—three tackles, zero sacks in twelve games. And when the Bills needed him most in the AFC Championship against the Chiefs, he was basically a ghost, playing just 16 snaps with a single tackle. Not ideal for a dude who was once the most feared pass rusher in the league.

And if that wasn’t enough, the off-field drama hit. In November 2023, Von Miller was accused of assaulting his pregnant girlfriend. He denied it, and no criminal charges were filed, but the NFL still wasn’t having it. After their investigation, they hit him with a four-game suspension in 2024 for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.

Even with all that noise, Miller still pulled in six sacks in 2024, proving he’s still got juice. But the Bills? They had to make some big-boy financial decisions, and this one had been coming. GM Brandon Beane had already warned that the team needed to be smart with the cap, and this move was just that. But yeah, that $15.4 million dead cap hit? Pain. But the fans aren’t happy about releasing Von Miller.

So, what now? Buffalo’s got to find a way to replace him—either through the draft or by snagging someone in free agency. Meanwhile, the younger guys on the roster have a golden opportunity to level up and take on a bigger role.

Despite the drama, Von Miller’s still got love in the league. Bills DC Leslie Frazier called him a real one for mentoring younger players, saying, “You don’t always see the superstar athlete willing to sacrifice his knowledge to help younger players grow.” Josh Allen also backed him, saying Miller’s mentorship “will pay a lot of dividends come season time.” And, of course, Andy Reid had to drop a classic line: “He can bear-crawl faster than I can run.”

So, where’s Miller headed next? No teams have made a move yet, but the Cowboys have been thirsty for him before. NFL insider Ed Werder reported that Dallas had “high interest” in Miller in a previous free-agency cycle, depending on the price. Will they take another shot? Or will another squad swoop in? Either way, Miller’s next move is about to be a must-watch NFL drama.

Bills’ Salary Cap Woes: Restructuring Josh Allen’s Contract Isn’t the Cheat Code

The Buffalo Bills are out here trying to dodge salary cap trouble like it’s a game of dodgeball, but the ball just smacked them squarely in the face. For years, they’ve been kicking their financial problems down the road like an overdue group project, but guess what? The deadline has finally hit, and there’s no last-minute extension coming to save them. Are fans hoping the Bills can just hit ‘CTRL+Z‘ on Josh Allen’s contract and magically free up cap space? Yeah, that isn’t happening. This time, the numbers aren’t budging.

Ever since Allen signed that fat $258 million extension in 2021, the Bills have been playing financial Jenga—converting his salary into signing bonuses, stacking restructures on restructures, and hoping the whole thing doesn’t come crashing down. But 2025 is officially the year the tower starts wobbling. Allen’s cap hit is set to explode to a career-high $34.5 million, and the real kicker? $28.7 million of that is untouchable. That means Buffalo can’t just wave a magic wand and move the money around like before.

Here’s the financial carnage already baked into 2025:

2021 Signing Bonus: $3.3 million
2022 Option Bonus: $8.48 million
2023 Restructure: $5.284 million
2024 Restructure: $4.175 million
2024 Renegotiation: $7.5 million

Before, Buffalo could work its cap magic and clear up $40 million in space with some fancy accounting. This time? Even the maximum possible restructuring would only free up $11 million—which, in the grand scheme of things, is like finding a $5 bill when you owe rent.

And sure, the NFL is raising the 2025 salary cap to somewhere between $277.5 million and $281.5 million, up from $255.4 million in 2024. Sounds nice, right? Well, not really—because even with that bump, the Bills are still projected to be $5.5 million to $10 million over the cap. So yeah, the cap increase is more like a participation trophy—it looks good, but it doesn’t actually help much.

Bills GM Brandon Beane saw this storm coming a long time ago. Back in 2021, when Allen first got his bag, Beane straight-up warned, “You got to think about your legacy, your career, and the more money you take… the less I can do to put weapons around you.” Fast forward to now, and that warning isn’t just knocking at the door—it’s kicked it wide open.

Even when the ink was still drying on Allen’s deal, Beane made it clear that the Bills had to be careful. In 2021, he said, “There’s no rush,” and that the contract had to be “a number that works for him and works for us.” Spoiler alert: It worked short-term, but Buffalo has been riding the credit card for years, and the bill has finally arrived for the Bills.

Allen, for his part, isn’t sweating it. Back in 2021, he made it clear he wanted to be “locked down in Buffalo for a very long time”, calling it “a place that I call home.” Love that energy, Josh, but home is getting hella expensive, and the Bills are running out of ways to afford it.

So what’s next? Buffalo doesn’t have any easy outs left. They’ll probably restructure Allen’s deal again, but at this point, that’s just borrowing money from their own future. If they don’t start making smarter financial moves, they’re staring down a full-blown roster reset sooner rather than later. The Super Bowl window? Not shut yet, but the Bills are dangling off the salary cap cliff by their fingertips—and 2025 might be the year they finally slip.