Buffalo Bills EDGE Von Miller enters 2023 NFL regular season on PUP list

Veteran edge rusher Von Miller made a valiant attempt to return to action by Week 1 of the 2023 season. But as the Buffalo Bills trimmed their active roster to 53 on Tuesday, they made the decision to keep the 34-year-old Miller on the Physically Unable to Perform list to start the regular season.

For Miller, who tore his ACL on Thanksgiving Day last season, this means he won’t be able to rejoin the team until Week 5. Of course, even at that time, it doesn’t mean that the 13-year veteran will be out on the field in Buffalo’s Week 5 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, since they don’t have to active him at that point. Once activated, the Bills will have a 21-day window to add Miller back to their active roster.

While Miller had said he hoped to be back by the start of the season, he also said he isn’t going to rush things.

“Whenever I get there, we’ll be ready to go,” Miller had said at the beginning of training camp, then added that it is important to be available for what he calls the “home stretch” of the season so he plans to be ready “no later than Week 6.”

Miller’s Week 6 prediction would line up perfectly with a Week 4 activation and then a couple of weeks of work before being added to the game day roster. And, for those keeping track — that would mean a return in the Bills primetime game against the New York Giants and a couple of games to ramp back up before Buffalo heads to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals in a rematch of last year’s divisional round playoff loss.

With Miller on PUP, it also gives the Bills some wiggle room on their roster to continue developing some depth players throughout the first four games of the season before needing to decide who to move when they do bring Miller back.