Entering the 2014 season, fans in Denver had their doubts about Von Miller. Heck, the front office might have had their doubts, too. The previous season he’d missed six games to open the season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. Then, just weeks before the Broncos would go on a run to Super Bowl XLVIII, Miller tore his ACL and missed the remainder of the season and the playoffs. One person who didn’t have doubts about what Miller could do in that season was DeMarcus Ware.
John Elway signed Ware to join Miller and the Broncos as part of a defensive overhaul in the 2013 to 2014 offseason that would ultimately lead to a victory in Super Bowl 50 on the back of a historic defense. So, as news broke on Wednesday that Ware was going on season-ending IR with a back injury and speculation loomed that the four-time All-Pro’s career could be over, people began to take stock.
Ware was without a doubt a huge impact on the field while in Denver, registering 21.5 sacks and 63 tackles in a Broncos uniform, but perhaps his greatest impact was in the mentorship he gave Miller.
“He’s had a huge impact on my life,” Miller told Eric Goodman and Les Shapiro in the Broncos locker room on Thursday. “You look at the years that he was here with me, and you look at my career and the type of person I am. It’s perfect. He came here in 2014, 2015, 2016, and those have to be some of my best years as a teammate, as a person and as a football player. So he had a huge impact on my life.”
Miller is now free and clear from the NFL’s drug program and over the past three seasons has become one of the most likable, marketable and visible players in the league. Much of the credit for that transformation has to do with Ware and how he groomed Miller into stardom with actions as much as words.
The Super Bowl 50 MVP is now paying that forward to the younger players on the team, even in the wake of a disappointing finish to the season – one not unlike the end to Ware’s first year in Denver, when the Broncos were bounced in the Divisional Round at home by the Colts.
“You can’t really tell them,” Miller said about preparing for next year. “You’ve got to lead by example. You’ve got to come in and your actions have to show everybody that this is not okay [missing the playoffs]. Losing seven games is just not okay, especially when we only lost seven games in the last two years … It just takes time. Yeah, you would like to win the division title 10 years straight, but that’s not always what it’s about. It’s about being a competing organization, being a winning organization over the test of time. If I play 10 years and make the playoffs nine [of them], this could be the catalyst to jumpstart us and get us back to a championship mentality.”
Ware never won a Super Bowl during his nine seasons in Dallas, but his influence, coupled with that of Peyton Manning, no doubt instilled that championship mentality in Miller. Miller, no doubt, will be carrying that forward in a Broncos uniform for years to come – with or without Ware.
And while Ware’s current status is still up in the air Miller believes that his mentor still has “gas left in the tank,” even though Ware will undergo back surgery this offseason. Shaprio asked Miller if he thinks Ware wants to come back:
“Most definitely,” Miller said, “You know, he’s a competitor. And whenever you see DeMarcus at 100 percent, it’s like, ‘man, the guy hit the fountain of youth,’ … He still has it left in the tank. I really do think he has a lot left in the tank.”
Enough for a run at a second Super Bowl championship in three years? Time will tell.
Listen to the full interview with Von Miller in the podcast below, including why Miller is at peace with 2016 despite missing the playoffs…
https://soundcloud.com/milehighsports/12-29-16-eric-les-catch-up-with-von-miller-who-is-at-peace-with-2016
Catch Afternoon Drive with Goodman and Shapiro every weekday from 4p-6p on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of Colorado sports from Denver’s biggest sports talk lineup.