Having grown up near Dallas, Von aspired to be apart of the very much disliked Dallas Cowboys (if you ask me) but was picked up by Denver instead. How he got there is just as interesting.
Von played high school football for DeSoto High School (just south of Dallas) but it wasn't until his junior year that he really started to make an impact on the team. In his junior year alone, he recorded 37 tackles, 7 sacks, 14 tackles for loss (TFL) and 12 quarterback hurries.
As a senior he was named the District 8-5A Defensive MVP after making 76 tackles, 6 sacks and 14 tackles for loss.Rivals.com also rated Von as the 29th best prospect in Texas and the 15th best weakside linebacker in the nation.
While in high school he played with 3 other teammates that would eventually end up at Texas A&M University like Von, they include Tony Jerod-Eddie, Cyrus Gray and Garrick Williams.
Von became a freshman defensive end at Texas A&M in 2007 and it didn't take long for him to be a productive part but his real shining moment wouldn't come till two years later.
The Sporting News named him Freshman All-Big 12, after he posted 22 tackles including 10 solo stops. In addition, he recorded 2 sacks, 4 TFL and a forced fumble. He came into his freshman year at 220 pounds (that’s a big dude for that age) and was apart of the 4-2-5 defense for the Aggies.
The following semester, Miller got a little off track and when the newly hired coach, Mike Sherman, found out he was skipping classes and failing to produce in practice, he placed Miller on suspension for Spring 2008.
His place in Kines' defense became more focused on pass coverage as opposed to rushing the quarterback, which held him back from doing what he did best, being a pass-rusher. He had to be disappointed with his new role because in the final seven Big-12 games of his sophomore year he came up with just 8 tackles.
Things did change for Von in his junior year though as he was put in what they call a "jack" position. His role on the defense turned into a defensive end/linebacker hybrid enabling him to utilize his pass-rushing skil ls.
Enter his breakout season as a football player.
Miller led the nation in sacks (17) and ranked fourth in the nation with 21 tackles for loss. His highlighted efforts led to him being named first-team All-Big 12 at defensive end and was also named to first-team All-American by Sporting News and Sports Illustrated.
Von became the first Aggie to be named a first-team All-American since Jason Webster in 1999, (a ten year span).
And a year before the football team got a new defensive coach, Joe Kines' was bold enough to compare Miller to the late Kansas City Chiefs star, Derrick Thomas, in the way he played football. Miller was then inspired to watch tape on Thomas and study how he played the game.
In Fall 2010, the Aggies had a new defensive coach in Tim DeRuyter. Von was once again moved to a different role for the defense, this time he became an outside linebacker in DeRuyter's 3-4 defense.
Early on in Miller's senior season, he suffered an ankle/foot injury but soon recovered enough to return to the field. And although he basically played on an injured ankle/foot his whole senior year, he came back with a vengeance.
He posted 10.5 sacks and 17.5 tackles for loss. With those stats, he received his second first-team All-Big 12 honors and won the Butkus award as the nation's top linebacker.
In addition, Von also received his second first-team All-American honors, which came from ESPN.com, Walter Camp, Scout.com, Pro Football Weekly and the Associated Press.
So in his last two college seasons, his stats add up to 27.5 sacks and 39.5 tackles for loss, leading him to be the top pass-rusher coming into the 2011 NFL Draft.
Prior to the draft, which took place just shy of a week ago, he was named Defensive MVP in the 2011 Senior Bowl, which showcases all the major college talent from around the nation.
And among all the linebackers at the 2011 NFL Combine, he posted these impressive stats:
1st in the broad jump
1st in the 60-yard shuttle (done in a record-breaking 11.15 seconds for linebackers at the Combine)
Tied for 1st in the 3-cone d rill
2nd in the 40-yard dash
3rd in the vertical jump
and 3rd in the 30-yard shuttle
Not too shabby at all for a 6-3, 246 lb linebacker.In March 2011, at the Texas A&M Pro Day, he ran a 4.49 40-yard dash.
Just barely a week ago, the draft took place and while a lot of people thought we'd go after Marcell Dareus or possibly Patrick Peterson, the Broncos' continued to surprise with the choice of Von Miller as the 2nd overall pick in the draft.
I can't really argue with t he choice seeing as how it wouldn't hurt us at all to put more pressure on the quarterback. We do have the Sack Master of them all in Elvis Dumervil, and heaven forbid this happen again to us, but in the case of what happened to the sack happy Elvis last season, it wouldn't hurt to have a back-up pass-rusher... especially with our sad little defense that it is right now.
And so now, sadly enough this brings me to the main event of this off-season... the horrible thought of not having a football season.
This off-season has been plagued by the NFL Labor Union talks with the Player's Association (a.k.a. Stupid Union) and it has been, without a doubt, a hard thing for all the owners, teams and players (incoming & current) to deal with. But I would have to say it's been more so for the fans, for the thought of no football season in just a few months is incomprehensible.
And while both sides argue and put off reaching a compromise in the near future, some current NFL players have talked incoming rookies into joining the lawsuit the players are bringing against the NFL.
I mention all this because one of my least favorite players, LaDanian Tomlinson, did just that to our first draft pick, Von Miller.
So when time came for the Broncos to announce their pick at #2 in the draft, it was in my opinion, a bit awkward for the commissioner and Miller. However, the announcement of Miller being chosen as the newest Denver Bronco, seemed anything but awkward as the two not only shook hands but hugged before the packed crowd at Radio City Music Hall and cameras.
One can only hope that a now player of ours won't be distracted by the lawsuit he's apart of against his own team and t he entire NFL.Miller also became the highest selected linebacker in the draft since LaVar Arrington was selected at #2 by the Washington Redskins in 2000. And he became the highest selected Aggie since Quentin Coryatt was selected 2nd overall back in 1992.
Hall of Fame quarterback and now Vice President of Operations for Denver had this to say about choosing Miller at #2: "(Miller's) a type of guy that comes around every 10 years."
Clearly Elway and the other 2 stooges in the Broncos' front office see something in Miller that Jazzy doesn't. haha
And so while the NFL and the players continue their childish drama of who's right and who's wrong and who should give in first, I try my best to look past it all and think of all that could go right for the Broncos this season now that we have made some major adjustments in the organization.
Check.
2) Got rid of "Mr. All-I-think-about-is-Me, Myself & I", Brandon Marshall (One of only 3 things McD ever did right for Denver)
Check
3) Drafted Tim Tebow (Denver's new face of the franchise) and a team of people that will back him up when he gets the chances to prove himself worthy of a starting job.
Check.
4) Hired a new head coach with a lot more potential at success in Denver, John Fox.
Check
5) Denver hired THE Hall of Famer & my hero, John Elway, as VP of Operations for the Broncos.
CHECK!!!!
6) Resigned Champ Bailey to a new contract (thank God).Check
7) Drafted an optimistic group of players in this year's draft that all deserve a chance when the time comes (even from fans, that means you Jazzy) :p
Check
And in just a few short months, all citizens of Bronco Country will get to witness, enjoy & revel in the induction of the very much loved & respected Shannon Sharpe to the NFL Hall of Fame.
Check, check, check !!!!
Furthermore, while I'm on the stay-optimistic bandwagon, with time, we will have Dumervil back in top shape ready to wreak havoc on all quarterbacks... my money is on this guy to plow Cutler into the ground when we take on the Bears, I cannot wait for this game to roll around!)
I look forward to seeing what our new additions will bring to this team and what success we can have with our new coach.
Welcome to the team Von Miller - it's Millertime in Denver! ahaha
***
Here are a few highlight videos about Miller. Turns out there are a lot of videos on him so I only posted a few. Also I think its in the first video, in some parts its hard to tell which one is him but I figured out he was #40 at Texas so, there ya go.
Von Miller Texas A&M Highlights
Von Miller hits Adam James, Ouch!
Von Miller Butkus Award Winner 2010 Highlights
Draft Preview: Von Miller
Von Miller Skills Competition 2011
Great article Princess! Are you going to do one on Rahim Moore now? Then I will post up the Nate Irving one?
ReplyDeleteAlso hope you don't mind that a cleaned up the layout a bit and I changed the last two graphics to something similar just better quality.
Haha, princess is picking on me now. I got 2 honorable mentions:) Let me rephrase my last statement I made about Von. I highly dislike the choice selection we used on him. I am just a bit bummed we didn;t get our DT. I would have been more okay with the selection if we had picked Paea or Marvin Austin. Then we could have picked up an OT in FA or later on in the draft. I am excited about what I see from Von, but he will have to prove to me over the season that he was the better choice over MD. Because a solid DT is not easy to come across.
ReplyDeleteNice article princess!
Haha yeah Princess called you out twice, I thought that was funny. And I understand where you are coming from Jazzy. Miller I think we be something special. I hope so, where as I think MD is just solid. You don't pick solid at 2, you go some special. Plus I would give them 3 years before comparing the pick. It ususally takes that long for them to reach full potential.
ReplyDeleteAlso heard we wanted Jarvis Jenkins, we wanted him more that Austin and Paea.
lol, don't mind at all Aussie, glad you fixed the article up a bit and the pics. I figured I didn't need to mention the errors of the piece so I just waited for you to see it and fix it. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteLOL, just razzin' on the frizzle a little bit. I couldn't help it. You were just so ticked we picked up Von, you practically fed me the words to say. haha I totally get what you're saying & where you're coming from on the whole thing. I could not, not write those parts in there, ya know. Too easy! Watch what you say around me, I'll use it later! :D All I am saying is give the guy a chance, I know he's got to prove himself to you but he deserves that chance to prove himself.
I think he's got the potential to do great things for this team, just need to find him a consistent spot on the D. Notice that when he was in college they kept moving him around, he never really got a chance to be consistent in what he does best, pass-rush. I think if we can place in the right spot to do that and keep him at it, he'll turn out to be just what we need and get him doing what he loves... harassing the QB. haha
I thought it was funny too, that's why I did it. Anyway, Aussie, you might want to put up your piece on Irving, don't know when I'll feel like doing another article soon. I wrote this in one day but these things wipe me out! lol Give me a week and may have my piece on Rahim up. Don't wait on me, go ahead and do your article. No big deal. Glad you both liked it.
Glad you don't mind.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Miller in the 4-3 he can't do as much blitzing, but I think he can get 10 sacks this year.
Ok Princess I will put mind up over the weekend and you can put up Moores some time next week then.
Man that was a terrible comment, thats what happens when tired at work haha.
ReplyDeleteSo I did some homework and found out a reason which makes me happy that we drafted Von. We have only drafted 3 LB's since 2000. DJ Williams-04, Terry Pierce-03, and Ian Gold-00. We have lived off of free agency at linebacker for too long. I didn't count spencer larsen as he has seen more action as a fullback than LB. But that is insane. We drafted as many LB's this year as we have in the last decade! Good gosh!!!
ReplyDeleteShows we lacked home grown talent. Looks like these three guys will be foundation players for the new look Broncos. EFX I think has got it right. Also the last two DTs that we drafted were Marcus Thomas and Trevor Pryce (though he is more a DE no). So that is not many in the last decade either!.
ReplyDeletewe drafted more than that pver the past decade, they just didnt work out. We had carlton powell a few years back and quite a few others
ReplyDeleteI just checked, true DT's=6, and price was in 97 and you were right, he was not really a DT, he was drafted as a DE
ReplyDeleteAnd it had Ian Gold coming out of college as a DB
ReplyDeleteDidn't Powell even play a down, even in preseason?
ReplyDeleteAnd 6 that is pretty terrible, how may of those were in the first 3 rounds?
I liked Gold, was a real solid player, and a DB out of College that is funny.
one 3rd, three 4th's, one 5th, one 7th's, none have amounted to much, so i guess our few LB selections have been more productive than our DT's.
ReplyDeleteLooks that way and now EFX have skipped on DTs too. At some point they will have to draft some to develop our talent base. Maybe a first next year?
ReplyDeleteNot sure what Jazzy will think of this. Its on nfl.com
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81fb5c7d/article/report-fairleys-draft-fall-enticed-broncos-to-consider-trade?module=HP_headlines
Looks like EFX almost traded back into the first round to get Fairley but decided not too considering it probably would have taken a lot of draft picks to get him... which is more likely to be true and I can just hear Jazzy now, "well then that's why we should have taken him at #2!!!" lol
haha, I wanted dareus at #2, not fairley, but I would have been happy trading back in to get him. I would have been more excited about von, if we had got any other big name DT in the draft, now we have to deal with a weak free agency year.
ReplyDeleteIf Fairley had fallen into the 17-20 range he would be a Bronco now, but he didn't so we couldn't move up to get him, which is unlucky, that would have been an awesome first round. But then our picks would have been only the 3rd, 2 6s and a 7th. I like the draft haul we got.
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain Jazzy. I knew if we didn't get a DT at #2 we'd be screwed. I felt it all along. I like Miller fine. We just need a DT real badly still and we will have to make due with what we can get now. I am glad they didn't get one who they didn't feel good about getting though like Paea or Austin. I like our draft. Re-signing Thomas and McBean may become a priority now. Maybe we can get Okoye from Houston. Trading up for Fairley would've been kinda cool, but it would've definatly cost us Moore, Franklin and Thomas. Not sure I like that idea then. I'll take what we got, with a smile. It's Miller time. We said we wanted a Tebow for the D. Well we got one.
ReplyDeletelol, whoops guess I did get that mixed up but still, you were so upset with us taking Miller, it came across that anyone else would have been a better pick for us than Von, even Fairley. I just saw that on nfl.com and just went with it. haha
ReplyDeleteWe'll be lucky to deal with any FA at the rate this whole labor talk stuff is going. I'd take a weak FA now than nothing. This sucks big time!! The longer they push the talks aside the worse it gets.