Von Miller says he would have joined Cowboys for less than Buffalo, but they offered him the Randy Gregory deal

This offseason has featured many twists and turns for the Dallas Cowboys and a few of them have come in the pass rushing department. Everyone remembers how Dallas was set to bring back Randy Gregory on a brand new deal before specific language in the contract caused things to fall apart at the last second. Gregory left for the Denver Broncos who had a need at the position after trading away Von Miller during the season.

Miller was sent to the Los Angeles Rams mid-2021 and helped them win the Super Bowl, but he still wound up hitting free agency this year and was linked to the Cowboys by several people (including DeMarcus Ware). Many are aware that Miller is from Texas so the Cowboys presented an option that seemed to make a lot of sense, but after seeing the deal that the Buffalo Bills gave him (six years, $120M) it became obvious how un-involved Dallas likely was throughout the negotiating process.

Von Miller says he would have joined the Cowboys for less, but not much less, and that they offered him the same deal that they did Randy Gregory

The Cowboys are notoriously shy in free agency and do not hand out huge contracts to players who they did not grow and develop. Von Miller is an exceptional talent who has now won multiple Super Bowls (including being named the game’s MVP in his first) so if they were going to deviate from previous practices, he would be in the conversation.

According to Miller, the Cowboys were not willing to get close to the Buffalo contract. According to Miller, the Cowboys offered him the same deal that they offered to Randy Gregory.

Outside linebacker Randy Gregory initially agreed to terms to return to the Cowboys in March, but then backed out, instead signing with the Broncos. Miller says Dallas then offered him the same contract they had negotiated with Gregory — a reported five-year, $70 million deal with two years guaranteed.

“I told them I was ready to come to the Cowboys,” Miller says. “I would have taken less to go to Dallas because it’s Dallas. But I wouldn’t take that much less.”

The contract that Buffalo gave to Miller was met with some intense reaction among NFL fans. It is a lot of money to give to an older player, but again if there is an exception to the rule it may be him. Whether or not the Cowboys were comfortable doing that is a different subject entirely as opposed to recycling the Randy Gregory offer.

Obviously Dallas was comfortable handing out the contract that they were going to for Gregory because they just about got it done. They might have thought they could turn around and hand the same thing to Miller, but he was always likely to command a lot more money than that, and he did in his contractwith Buffalo.

It is certainly easier now for Miller to say that he would have taken less to join the Cowboys, but for all we know that is true. We have seen many players use the Cowboys brand to get more money elsewhere and it is possible that he did that with Buffalo.