Von Miller admitted in his first Rams press conference that he’s “such a sentimental guy.” He felt a lot of emotions after learning that the Broncos traded him to the Rams, both good and bad. He was sad to be leaving the team and city he spent the last 11 years of his life with but also saw the positives of joining a team that has Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey and Leonard Floyd.
He cried “a lot” on Monday when the trade happened and some of those tears were tears of joy because he was teaming up with Donald in L.A.
“I cried a lot on Monday, but all the tears weren’t sad. I had tears of joy too because I’m coming here to play with Aaron Donald. It was amazing,” Miller said. “I’ve been familiar with Aaron. He came to a pass-rush summit. You watch film each and every week, you watch all the highlights in the sack reels, and you see him just going crazy. These guys triple team him. I’ve been getting triple teamed for the last 10 years. That’s six people right there. And we still got Leonard Floyd and all the other guys. So, it’s going to be fun.”
The Rams are always searching for ways to make life easier for Donald, considering how often he’s doubled and tripled by opponents. The addition of Floyd helped this year and last, but bringing in a future Hall of Famer like Miller should free up all three of them to have more one-on-one opportunities.
“I feel like it frees up us all. I’m sure they’ll figure out creative ways to try to triple team and double team and chip but it can’t possibly be that effective,” Miller said. “We got great coaches, we got great guys playing on his team and we’ll be able to figure it out. They’ve already been with it, we are first in sacks on defense already and add me to that team, I feel like I could add and help out some of these guys for sure.”
Even though Miller has never been teammates with Donald and the Broncos only faced the Rams once every four years, the two know each other from the Miller’s pass-rush summit, as well as their interactions on social media.
Miller is an outstanding pass rusher in his own right, but even he is blown away by how good Donald is and the moves that he comes up with.
“The pass-rush summit is a great place because you can sit down, and you can watch film, and we can go over plays, and it’s actually the guy that is doing this stuff. What stuck out for me with Aaron is just the stuff that he was doing,” Miller said. “Like, there is no move for it. You really couldn’t put it into words. I think he created like this power pop. He was just bullying the guy and moving him out the way. I was just blown away by his strength, and his knowledge of the game, and some of the stuff he does it just can’t be done. We had veterans there. We had guys that had retired and came back to contribute to the pass-rush summit. You look at Aaron and some of this stuff you just can’t put it into words and some of the stuff it just can be done. It’s such an honor and a privilege to be his teammate, to be all of these guys’ teammates, man. I’m going to earn their respect each and every day, each and every game, man. And I’m excited to be here. It’s going to be a good one.”
Miller is expected to make his Rams debut this week against the Titans but it may not be in a full capacity as he continues to get up to speed. But once he gets completely acclimated in the Rams defense, this is going to be a unit that no offense wants to face.
[vertical-gallery id=657208]