For three years, staring down the inevitable forward march of Father Time, Von Miller has been training. Hoping. Waiting for the day, soon enough, that he can seize another job back with the Denver Broncos.
Just maybe not as an outside linebacker.
“If I don’t go back to Denver and play as a football player,” Miller told The Denver Post on Monday, “I would like to go back to Denver and be in the front office, or whatever, in some capacity.”
In 2011, a 22-year-old Miller sat down in Indianapolis for a combine meeting with then-Broncos general manager John Elway, and felt something. After winning a Super Bowl ring and making eight Pro Bowl appearances in more than a decade in the NFL, he figured out what it was. In the room shadowing Elway, as Miller remembered, was former NFL Pro Bowler and Broncos safety John Lynch. Miller noticed, then. And he noticed, six years later, when Lynch was hired as the San Francisco 49ers’ general manager .
“As I played throughout my career, and I started to think about things I wanted to do and how to stay attached to football without playing — those core memories just kinda chose me,” Miller said.
Quietly, in 2023, Miller — going into his second year with the Buffalo Bills — returned to the NFL combine to begin rubbing elbows with some of the league’s decision-makers. He told Bills general manager Brandon Beane of his future ambitions, and Beane “stoked that flame,” Miller said. For three straight years, Miller has returned to the combine to continue relationship-building with NFL front offices.
Now, as the 37-year-old Miller can see the end nearing for his playing days, he’ll make it plain: he wants to become an NFL general manager.
And he’d like the path to lead him back to Denver, soon enough.
“I’m not a contract guy,” Miller said, when asked where he sees himself climbing the ladder in a front office. “I’m not going to sit in there and deal with contracts, and find numbers — I’m not a numbers guy. When it comes to scouting, I’m not going to sit there and watch film for 20 hours a day, either. I think my talent is just, people. Knowing people. The infrastructure of a team, knowing how to put together a schedule – just the daily grind of being a player in the National Football League. I know what it takes, and I know what it looks like to be a championship organization.”
, of course, that he wants to re-sign with the Broncos as an edge rusher this offseason, first and foremost. He is quick to point out that he finished with nine sacks for the Commanders in 2025, the most he’s tallied since the season Denver traded him in 2021. After a one-year deal with Washington expired, Miller said he’s had no communication with the Broncos during this free agency; he’s hopeful, he said, that general talks with organizations heat up post-NFL Draft.
“I know I can still play,” Miller said. “I know I at least got one more year in me. So I’m just waiting to see whatever the universe gives me.”
The stars aren’t exactly pointing toward Denver. Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper are entrenched as Denver’s starting outside linebackers, and the Broncos are so loaded at edge rusher that they’re moving 2023 third-round pick Jonah Elliss to inside linebacker to open up more snaps for both him and 2025 fourth-round pick Que Robinson.
If the Broncos are interested in Miller or other veteran help, though, now is the time to strike. According to the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, the compensatory free-agent window officially closed Monday at 2 p.m. This has major implications for Denver, as the Broncos stand to be gifted a 2027 mid-round pick after losing key defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers to a massive contract with the Titans in March.
Denver was silent in the initial wave of free agency, with just one external signing: Bengals safety and special-teams player Tycen Anderson. This was strategic, not merely about valuing roster retention. Signing another big-money free agent during the compensatory period would’ve wiped out any pick awarded from Franklin-Myers’ signing.
“It does — I mean, it doesn’t dictate what we’re doing, but we obviously know itap there,” general manager George Paton said at league meetings in March, asked if preserving compensatory picks factored into Denver’s offseason decision-making.
“Next year, we should get the 4, and maybe a 7th,” Paton continued later, referencing the additional departure of safety P.J. Locke to Dallas. “Thatap what you want to get to. It took us a while to get here, where we can get compensatory picks. And you see other teams do it, and I like that we’re doing it.”
Now, though, the Broncos are free to throw a few million at remaining free agents, with no fear of losing the pick gained from Franklin-Myers. There’s still a wealth of talent left on the market, too: the most obvious fit is former Saints All-Pro Cam Jordan, who racked up 10.5 sacks in 2025 and has remained close with head coach Sean Payton from their New Orleans days. Denver native Calais Campbell could also be a target if he decides to play a 19th NFL season, still highly productive as an interior disruptor at the remarkable age of 39.
And Miller remains as a potential reunion candidate, too, before his eventual foray into the personnel world.
That journey may not be far off, though.
“I’m confident in that — I’ll be back in Denver, in some capacity,” Miller said. “If not a player, as a GM, or front-office.
“It’s just, I think it was the same way with Elway,” he continued, noting Elway’s player-to-executive path in Denver. “When you have that much love, and the energy is just so loving that — we just gotta figure it out. If itap not a player, itap a spot for me in Denver. We just gotta figure it out.
“And itap just a matter of time.”
