The Buffalo Bills have placed Von Miller on the team’s injured reserve list.
The transaction comes just hours before the Bills (8-3) were set to faceoff against the New England Patriots (6-5). However, Miller had already previously been ruled out of the contest.
Miller will not miss a minimum of four games.
Miller originally sustained a knee injury in Week 13 against the Detroit Lions. Initially it was determined Miller did not tear his ACL which would have kept him out upwards of a year.
Instead, Miller suffered a sprain and reports indicated the Bills would wait seven to 10 days to figure out what to do next. The answer: injured reserve.
Via a pool report, Buffalo general manager Brandon Beane released this statement on the decision to place Miller on IR:
“We’ve been assessing Von this week and seeing how he is. We don’t want to rush him back. This gives us a chance to go ahead & count tonight’s game and three more on injured reserve. And hopefully we can get him back for the stretch run.”
Miller, 33, said on his Bleacher Report podcast this week that he was hopeful to return to action by Buffalo’s next game.
Combining that idea and Beane’s, placing Miller on the designation now so the Pats contest counts against the four games he must miss being on IR makes sense.
Had Buffalo waited until this weekend to make the move, Miller would miss out on an opportunity to play in his team’s final two games of the regular season instead of just one.
Miller’s potential return (the team can keep him on IR for longer if they so choose) would be Week 17 against the Cincinnati Bengals. That game is a Monday Night Football outing as well.