Following their historic run to the NFC Championship Game in 2024, the Washington Commanders instantly became a destination for free agents all over the map. With ample cap space, and a budding superstar in Jayden Daniels, Von Miller thought lining up next to Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu was a logical next step in his career.
After being released by Buffalo, Miller had two contract offers going into training camp, Washington or Seattle. With an unknown quarterback situation at the time, the Emerald City seemed like more of a gamble to the future Hall of Famer than the burgundy and gold who had just reached their first NFC Championship Game in 33 years.
"It wasn't a lot, I only had two offers last year. I had one offer from the Commanders, and that's where I went and played, and I had one offer from the Seattle Seahawks" Miller told Steve Smith Sr. and James Palmer on their "89" podcast. "Obviously I picked the wrong team on that one. That would've been three Super Bowls with three different teams."
Going into the year, Miller was impressed by how close Jayden Daniels had come to carrying his team to the promised land, and saw it as a chance to be part of something special the following season.
"For me, with the Washington Commanders, I just felt like Jayden Daniels was poised for another great season," Miller explained. "His rookie season went all the way to the NFC championship, and last year, he got hit with injuries, not just at the quarterback position, but all over the place. And those are some of the things that you just can’t calculate on teams."
Knowing how a team will be impacted by injuries is something that is impossible to predict. The Commanders were plagued with injuries on both sides of the ball with Austin Ekeler being placed on IR in Week 3, Dorance Armstrong in Week 8, and even though Jayden Daniels was never officially placed on IR, he still missed 10 games between a knee and elbow injury.
His most recent season in Washington was the first season in four years that he was able to play and start in every game of the year. Even without the health concerns, Miller was a shell of his former self looking nothing like the 3x First Team All-Pro and Super Bowl 50 MVP edge rusher than offensive coordinators have come to fear.
