Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame Edge Rusher Hit with 4-Game Suspension

Outside of a Week 4 shellacking to the Baltimore Ravens, the Buffalo Bills haven’t had many negative things to discuss thus far into the 2024 season. On the heels of that blowout loss, the team was just informed that defensive end Von Miller has been suspended for the next four games. Miller is out until October 28, following the team’s week eight game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Miller was suspended for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy and will forfeit his pay. It stems from a domestic violence issue last November on the Bills' bye week that saw an arrest warrant be put out for Miller in Dallas on allegations of assaulting his pregnant girlfriend, per Adam Schefter. The future Hall-of-Fame defensive player turned himself in and posted bail. Miller then returned to play for the Bills for the rest of the season.

Following the news, the Bills stated they would allow the legal process to play out for something that was “out of character for someone they’ve come to know well over the last few years,” per Bills’ general manager Brandon Beane. During the offseason, the league was considering placing Miller on the commissioner's exempt list while they conducted their own investigation, however, they never did. Over the summer Miller was cleared from a legal standpoint as no charges were filed and the case was closed after his longtime girlfriend said Miller never assaulted her.

Now heading into Week 5 of the 2024 NFL season, the league has appeared to close its investigation into the matter and suspended the 35-year-old. It’s another hit to Bills' defense which has already been without All-Pro linebacker Matt Milano, All-Pro nickel cornerback Taron Johnson, and rising star middle linebacker Terrel Bernad. Despite those players being out all year, the Bills defense has performed admirably. That was until Sunday night’s game which saw the Ravens’ run game punish the Bills’ backups. More teams will aim to attack that weakness and now they’ll do it without the threat of Von Miller’s pass-rush over the next few weeks.

Miller took a big pay cut to stay with the team who opted to do a mini-reset over the offseason. The team moved on from aging veterans and ate tons of dead cap to clean up the salary cap situation for the future. Miller, who was a complete non-factor last season after returning from his Thanksgiving ACL tear in 2022, took a very team-friendly salary cut and allowed it to be fueled by incentives. His base value went from $17.5 million to $8.654 million. Additionally, $7 million was converted to a signing bonus which only put him on the books for a salary of $1.5 million with the ability to make up to $20 million by hitting incentives. Because of this, the suspension will only cost Miller $333k of that $1.5 million salary.

The former Super Bowl MVP was off to a hot start this season, recording three straight sacks in the first three games of the season. In his first season in Buffalo Miller looked in his prime still until tearing his ACL. It’s taken a while but it seems as though the Bills were finally getting a form of the old Miller back. Now, his suspension stymies that and hurts an already injured Bills’ defense even more. He will miss big games against the Texans, Jets, and Seahawks.