injured last week because
you and explained after talking to Brandon being before
the season, the whole mindset, the idea,
keep them on a pitch keys, a closer than fresh keep him
here, keep him ready for the games that matter most. Now
he's got this lateral, meniscus tear. And as I mentioned
earlier
on the Vaughn cast Tuesday,
got the impression he's coming back next week against the Jets,
he gets put on IR out of the blue.
Yesterday afternoon. So he will miss at least the next four
games,
you know, if you get that thing repaired, the meniscus repair
takes a long time to recover on the back end, I've gotten
the impression that he's going to play with this thing.
The question is when,
and if he misses the next three games, the first game, he will
be back for eligible to return for. Is that Monday night
Showdown with the Bangles? And that's when you are kicking it
into overdrive
and you're getting ready for the postseason,
which is precisely why they spent the money.
Me on him to have him make a difference. When it's time to
see Patrick Mahomes or Joe burrow or Lamar Jackson in
the playoffs.
You know, Mike, I knew you were going to talk about that so
I just called, I mean, I knew that
after you started going that way, I went and looked at his
snap count and you're right. I thought that after playing 75
to 80% of the snaps,
you know, for the majority of his career
sometimes more than that
I thought he'd be right around 50%
and he has been mostly above that this year
and particularly
later in the year, I think the bills got a little bit
comfortable and I'm not blaming them. You know, you've got
a weapon like that especially
because you did have some injuries
on that defensive line.
But his percentages in the week before he got hurt.
I'll read you, his his percentages, the last five weeks,
seventy eight, seventy seventy three seventy and seventy three.
And that was before he got hurt in the game against Detroit at
Ford Field. And, and my Late. My only point about that is not
all that's you know misuse by
the the Buffalo Bills
I don't mean that
what I mean is that
especially especially and consider this mic
when you have seen Von Miller
and look, he got hurt on a totally fluky play,
but fluky plays do happen in football.
But my point is that,
if you see him
at age 33 beat, Absolutely comfortable
be. He's he morphed in early on into a huge team leader on this
defense, on a defense full of Alphas,
you know, like poyer in hide and Matt Milano,
you know,
I think everybody look to Von Miller because quite frankly
he's been there before
and so he was so healthy playing so well that that
number sort of crept up and again,
no blame. To the bills at all
on this thing but the fact is the more you're out there.
The more chance you have of getting one of those fluky
freaky injuries. It could happen if he was playing 28% of
the snaps,
but the fact is, he did get hurt. And now, look,
I'll just say one other thing about an injury like this,
which is not severe.
And that is that, let's say, Mike he sits for the next three
weeks. Let's say, he sits until the Monday night game on
January 2,
a fresh Von Miller chasing Joe burrow on the day. After
the new year starts.
I think that's got to make
Leslie, Fraser and his defensive staff and Sean
McDermott salivate. So we'll see what happens.
But I don't think especially because of the depth. At
Brandon Bean is built-in to that defense.
I don't think it's going to be fatal to this team this year.
And the genius may have been that they did put them on on
your reserve and he can't come back before then so he has to
sit. So there's no temptation
because I think what happens is very simple,
you put him on the field and he starts kicking ass
and and you just
it's football, keep playing.
It takes a hell of a lot of discipline to stick to the plan
to make one of the great pass. Rushers of our era, a part-time
player.
When you see what he can do,
how do you Fight to the other players who are out there
full-time.
How do you justify to the fan base? Who sees what he does?
And you want to do it too.
The guy makes us better
and injuries are part of football and you just accept it. But
yeah it could have happened on any snap but the fewer snap
should take the less likely that fluke is to occur
statistically. So the best way
to keep him healthy
for weeks 1718 and Beyond
is to ensure this snaps will be zero percent until
Then and
hey he believed he was ready to play next week. He probably
wasn't happy to be put on injured reserve. But this is
the best way to ensure that they'll have him.
Get him kind of back into
proper game shape the last two weeks of the season
and then you unleash him
when the post season rolls around and maybe he gets a week
off before you. Play your first playoff game, if they can get
back, even with the Chiefs. And therefore, when the number one
seed by virtue of their victory in Kansas City, earlier this
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