Von Miller enjoyed a lot of winning and success with the Denver Broncos, making the playoffs five seasons in a row from 2011-2015 and winning Super Bowl 50 six years ago. He also endured some difficult seasons, with Denver finishing below .500 in each of the last four years.
Miller hasn’t been with the Los Angeles Rams very long, but he’s seen some differences between his former team and his current one – specifically when it comes to handling adversity.
Miller told reporters Wednesday that when the Broncos were losing, they would go harder in practice, watch more film and almost double down in an attempt to correct their mistakes. With the Rams, they stay even-keeled and treat every week individually, regardless of the result from their last game.
“Honestly, like I know I say this every single week, but we have been so even-keeled and so consistent with things that we do, how we prepare,” Miller said. “When I was with the Denver Broncos, when we lose, it’s time to double down on something. It’s time to go harder, it’s time to do something differently, it’s time to watch more film, practice a little bit harder, lift a little bit harder. And these guys, they just got a formula. We come in, we do our stuff, we go home. And we trust our guys. We trust the stars on the team. We trust the foundational players. We trust the coaches. And honestly, we just come in and we do the exact same thing. When we we’re losing, we were doing the exact same thing. And when we’re winning, we have the same exact mindset that we’ve had these eight weeks that I’ve been here. So it’s been very consistent whether we win or lose.”
Miller quickly experienced some turbulence when he was traded to the Rams. After losing four straight with the Broncos, Miller then lost the first two games he played with the Rams as part of the team’s three-game losing skid.
But they’ve since turned things around, winning each of their last five games – a stretch in which Miller has recorded three sacks and five QB hits. He’s become an important part of the defense, even though the defense as a whole hasn’t really changed much through the ups and downs.
“I would say we’ve been jelling, but we’ve had the same mindset since I’ve been here,” he said. “It just feels good to go out there and do your job. It feels good to go out there and rush the quarterback well. It feels good to make plays for your teammates and your coaches and stuff. Early on when we played the 49ers the first time, that was my first game and we had a lot of good rushes in that game as well. We didn’t get any sacks, but we had a lot of great rushes and we were close in that game as well. So like I said, we really haven’t changed anything and it feels good to be confident in a group of guys that you have and confident in what you’re doing.”