LA Rams 6+ Plan B options as team must now ‘move on from Von’

Go figure. The saga of the will-he-or-won’t-be Von Miller is over, and the result is a disappointing outcome. The fact is that Miller arrived on the LA Rams roster as a mercenary, a player who admittedly was ‘just doing his job’ for the Rams. It played out almost perfectly, as he arrived, got up to speed, helped the team to close out the season on a 5-1 run, and then flip over into the postseason with a 4-0 run that included a Super Bowl LVI win at SoFi Stadium.

The Rams had to know that if they did not succeed at winning a Super Bowl, their 2022 second and third-round picks invested to acquire Miller would appear to be significant overpay for the veteran outside linebacker. But the front office knew that an even greater peril lie waiting for the team if they did succeed at winning the NFL Championship.

Like so many other outside linebackers, Von Miller’s before and after statistics proved once more that the LA Rams have an almost supernatural ability (a.k.a. the Aaron-Donald effect) to rejuvenate the production of an outside linebacker from meh to OMG!-Would-you-check-this-out.

And therein lies the corner that the Rans painted themselves into. By trading for Von Miller, a player who was content to fade away into the sunset in Denver Colorado, the Rams reminded the entire NFL just how good Miller could play. They also reminded him what he is worth, a fact that Buffalo Bills were more than happy to punctuate with an exclamation point.

The Bills are signing Miller to a six-year deal worth $120 million, or an average of $20 million per year.

That is about twice what his market value was expected to be, and a solid 133% of what the LA Rams were looking to offer him.

But we’ve been down this road before. Other teams pay outlandish prices for defensive players who are exiting the LA Rams defense based upon what that player did for the Rams, not what they will do in their defense. But one more lesson to learn for one more team. I love what Von Miller helped the Rams to achieve, but I am nowhere near confident that he can replicate that same level of production for the Buffalo Bills.