The Bills' Thanksgiving Day win over the Lions appeared to come at an enormous cost when pass rusher Von Miller was carted off the field with an injury to his right knee. While the injury may not sideline him for the year, it will keep him out for at least the next month after the Bills placed Miller on their injured reserve list on Thursday.
Miller revealed the specifics of his injury earlier this week. He also shared when he was hoping to return to the field prior to being placed on injured reserve. The earliest Miller can return is for Buffalo's Week 17 game in Cincinnati.
"This news is not the best of news, but it's definitely not the worst of news. It's kind of like in the middle," Miller said on his podcast, via Bleacher Report. "I didn't tear my ACL, that was the huge part of it. But I do have some lateral meniscus damage, and it's going to have to be addressed.
"I do feel like I can play through that. Just going to wait a little bit, let the swelling go down for about 7-10 days and hopefully, right before the Jets game (in Week 14), I will be back."
On the decision to place Miller on injured reserve, Bills general manager Brandon Beane said that Miller did not suffer a setback and that the team does not want to rush Miller back into action."He's been doing treatment and trying to rehab it," Beane said, via NFL Media. "The competitor in him -- if he could wheel it out there tonight, he would do it. We just think in talking to the medical people that the best decision right now is to give this time, and that gives him the best opportunity to help us down the stretch."
The 33-year-old Miller showed no signs of slowing down during the season's first 11 games. The two-time world champion and Super Bowl 50 MVP has eight sacks, 10 tackles for loss and a forced fumble this season. He is two sacks away from notching his first double-digit sack campaign since 2018.
Fortunately for Buffalo, they will have two other pass rushers back for Thursday night's game against the Patriots. A.J. Epenesa will play after being a full participant this week. Greg Rousseau did not appear on the injury report this week and will suit up against New England. Ankle injuries kept both players out of last week's win over Detroit.
