Any talk of Broncos ending ties with Von Miller is ludicrous

Good morning, Broncos Country!

There has been some talk around here and across the Internet Brain Trust that perhaps the Broncos should move on from Von Miller in order to free up salary money and cap space to help with the massive rebuild that inevitably must take place this offseason.

And to that I say, ARE YOU EFFING CRAZY????

Seriously.

I know we’re all out of sorts over this team’s 3-8 record and its last-place-in-the-AFC-West standing right now.

But get real.

No matter how much money Miller’s contract would be worth - and how many better-than-average free agents it could buy - the loss of Von would be far greater than the sum of its parts.

This defense has clearly already felt the loss of DeMarcus Ware’s calming but motivating influence. And the entire team has felt the loss of Peyton Manning. So the last thing the Broncos should do is get rid of the one player who shows consistent work ethic, accountability and leadership - not to mention production.

Miller is not yet on Ware’s level when it comes to leadership - and no one will probably ever match Manning in that department - but No. 58 is the best thing going for this team in both athletic talent and leadership capability, and thinking of his presence merely in potential spending terms is blasphemy as far as I’m concerned.

Miller consistently leaves it all out on the field every game day. He doesn’t have the sacks (and he certainly knows it), but his pressures on the quarterback are still among the best in league - and that’s in spite of getting held, chipped and double- or triple-teamed at every turn.

“I thought Von has played well,” Vance Joseph noted yesterday, pointing out that he has played really well in the run game and has held his own in the passing despite full game plans from opponents just to contain him. “He’s being chipped and doubled `every week and I don’t blame them. You can’t let Von Miller wreck the game. ...In my opinion, Von’s played very solid this year.”

And after the games, when all the effort has seemingly been for naught and the Broncos have accepted eight checks in the “loss” column, which player is refusing to point fingers at others? Which player is still trying to rally his teammates and keep their heads up despite the situation? Which player is still trying to get better every week?

That’s right. Von F-ing Miller - soon to be known across the Internet as “VFM.”

“You just go out there and play. You control what you can control,” Miller said Thursday. “I just focus on my game and focus on my teammates. I guess you just feel free. I feel more entitled to say something to my teammates and say something to the guys and come up here every day and be the same person. I think that’s what the conversation is for - just for me to be the best Von Miller I could possibly be. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

Miller, who had his first mediocre game in a long time last week at the Raiders, joked on Thursday that if he knew how to help the Broncos overcome the adversity in the game, he certainly would have tried it.

“If I knew that, we wouldn’t be talking about this right now. We would be undefeated,” he said [laughing]. “It doesn’t matter what happens on the football field. It’s not about how I get on the football field, it’s about how I get off. That’s just the mindset that I have. If we get on the football field and we just threw an interception, we have to get off the field. That’s just the mindset that we have. Everybody has a job. Everybody has a role. We just have to go out there and do it.Once again Miller defended his coaches and kept the blame inward.

“I say this time and time again. It has nothing to do with coaching. If that was the case, let’s just make up our own plays and go out there,” Miller said. “I’m a locker room guy. I like to keep the locker room solid, and we still have a solid locker room. ...We have to figure out how to win the games we’re supposed to win and we have to figure out ways to win the games that we’re not supposed to win. That’s just how it is.”

And figuring out a way to win - especially for the defense but also for the entire team - has nothing to do with which quarterback is playing.

“I feel like once you start blaming this and putting blame here, you really lose control,” Miller said. “I like to put the weight on my shoulders. We have to play better defense. If we can play better defense and get some turnovers, we can get the offense back to balling and we’ll be able to win. I like living in that world and that’s just how I am.”

While Miller’s post-game press conference moods of late have ranged from hopeful to downtrodden, he still maintains proper perspective - something a team in such disarray needs to keep around.

“Tough? The toughest season? It’s not tough,” Miller said when asked how hard this season was for him. “Look at this facility we have, look at this. It’s not tough to come to work every day. It is a tough league and it is a tough sport. We’re losing right now, and it’s a terrible feeling, but at the end of the day, it’s not too tough. We just have to figure out ways to win and everything will be back right.”

If all else fails in the process, Miller has another solution.

“It really doesn’t matter who we throw out there,” he said. “I can play quarterback (laughing).”

#VFM.

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