The Buffalo Bills are entering another season with Super Bowl aspirations. But they will start it without star pass rusher Von Miller, who will begin the season on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list as he continues working his way back from a tear in his right ACL.

Miller will be sidelined through the first four weeks of the season when the Bills face the New York Jets, Las Vegas Raiders, Washington Commanders and Miami Dolphins. Buffalo has a solid pass rush with Greg Rousseau, Leonard Floyd, A.J. Epenesa, Shaq Lawson and Ed Oliver but lacks some firepower without Miller.

Keeping Miller out indefinitely through the first quarter of the season was not an easy decision. Bills general manager Brandon Beane explained the decision to put one of the team's best players, according to Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN.

“Debated round and round a little bit but ultimately, long season and we want Von for the stretch run,” Beane said, via ESPN. “As I said before, he’s trending up and I think it was a chance he would have been practicing soon, kind of working his way but he’s not quite there.”

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In 11 games last season, his first with the Bills, Miller recorded 21 combined tackles, 8.0 sacks, two defended passes and one forced fumble. Although Buffalo won out the rest of the regular season without him, they certainly needed him in the postseason after narrowly beating the Miami Dolphins and losing to the Cincinnati Bengals.

Assuming he's good to go right when he becomes eligible, Miller would not be returning in the easiest circumstances. The Bills' Week 5 game comes against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London. The team will miss him but it's understandable to see them prioritize the long-term goal of a Super Bowl and wanting to protect Miller from further injury.

“It doesn't really matter how much time he misses to us, cause like he's gonna come back whenever he's ready and honestly, if it takes extra games for him to get ready, I think that'll be, I feel like that's the best course of action,” Rousseau said, via ESPN. “We want to have Von in the later part of the season, playoffs.”

Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs and the Bills offense will feel some extra pressure to extend drives and put up points without Miller helping them out on the other side of the ball.