The Dallas Cowboys made a major move this weekend, signing two-time Super Bowl champion and eight-time Pro Bowler Von Miller to a one-year deal to bolster the team’s pass rush, which needed another top option when it comes to hunting the quarterback. Miller is the current active leader in sacks, with 136.5 in his 14-year career, and racked up 9.0 sacks last season in Washington.
While it appears to be a no-brainer move for a team that is trying hard to improve what was one of the worst defenses in the NFL–the worst according to some metrics–signing the 37-year-old Miller is not getting universal plaudits as an impact move. There’s a reason that Miller was still unsigned at this point in the summer, after all.
And former Cowboys scout Bryan Broaddus, now doing analysis with 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, sees this as not only a low-impact move, but as an outright bad one.
Cowboys Signing of Von Miller a ‘Bad Deal’
That’s not exactly what Cowboys fans want to hear, of course, and The Fan was apparently overrun with negative messages after Broaddus put out his reasoning for giving the Miller move the thumbs down.
But Broaddus went through the tape, and here’s what he had to say: “If this is a signing to say that Von Miller is going to be a starter or with the upper tier of guys as a rush end with the Dallas Cowboys or at outside linebacker where they are going to play him, this is a bad, bad deal. Because he is not that guy anymore.
“If this guy’s name was Von Smith, you would not sign him off the tape he showed last year. You have to go back and watch it, he does not have the burst, he does not have the close, the sacks that he got were—they were times that mistakes were made by offensive linemen, guys falling down.”
Cowboys Better With James Houston
To be fair to Miller, every high-sack guy is going to put up numbers because of an offensive mistake, just like every home-run hitter is going to get a few hanging curveballs. But Broaddus’ argument is that the player the Cowboys are most likely to bump out of the rotation–James Houston–is better than Miller.
For what it is worth, by the way, Miller rated No. 66 of 119 edge rushers last year according to Pro Football Focus, and Houston was No. 49.
Said Broaddus: “He is a guy who when he is on the field, he is not a big difference-maker and he has not been a big difference-maker for a long time. If you are going to tell me, OK, Von Miller will come and play 15 plays, I will challenge you, I will challenge you with all my belief that if you play Houston—you play James Houston 15 snaps and you play Von Miller 15 snaps, James Houston will have more pressures and more sacks than Von Miller.”
Von Miller Has Value as a Teammate, Too
Now, Miller was careful in his Cowboys introductory press conference to say that his impact on a team can go beyond the number of snaps he takes on the field. And maybe that’s what Broaddus is not taking into account. Miller can help develop younger players, and he can help teammates and coaches with in-game insights.
“I can still play football. But I can still contribute in other ways,” Miller said. “On my Super Bowl teams, it’s not just one person that gets it done. I think if you can say what you want about my play on the field, and whet I got left, but when it comes to being a great teammate, if there is a Hall of Fame for that, I am going to the Hall of Fame.
“To be honest, I am probably the best teammate that ever played in the National Football League, and I say that with all the confidence in the world. My ability to get other players around me to play at a level they wouldn’t normally play at, like, nobody does that like me. And I said the other day that I can contribute 10 or 15 plays, that is without even being on the field.”
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