OXNARD, Calif. – Before the 2025 season, Von Miller had two offers in front of him. Join the Seattle Seahawks, or the Washington Commanders.
Miller would go on to choose the Commanders, excited about what the team had done before with Jayden Daniels and being a fan of former Cowboys DC and now Commanders head coach Dan Quinn amongst other things. He'd go on to lead the team in sacks with nine while Washington closed the year 5-12. The Seahawks, meanwhile, had one of the best defenses in the league, finished 14-3 and won the Super Bowl. Miller doesn't think his decision was a mistake, it was just the one he made. He faced the same scenario ahead of the 2026 season.
"This year, I really wanted to be intentional with the decision that I made and what team that I went to." Miller said.
A month ago, Von Miller was in Las Vegas and ran into Cowboys QB Dak Prescott.
Miller sat down with Prescott and the two struck up a conversation, where Miller gave his perspective on the team Dallas had assembled ahead of the 2026 season.
"Hey man, it's about time, Dak," Miller told him. "It's about time. You've got to break through with one of these teams, you've got to break through one of these years. I think this year you'll be able to do it. You've got everybody to do it."
At the time, Miller had no idea his 2026 decision would lead him to sign with his hometown team a month later. Now, he looks back and sees that interaction as a sign from above.
"That just happened naturally," Miller said. "Then the Cowboys reached out, and I was like, 'This is a sign, this is a sign for me.' We worked on it, talked to some other teams… just by being a Dallas Cowboy and wearing that star, it was beneficial to me and my family. That's what ultimately made the decision for me."
When Miller was four or five years old, he recalls one of his core memories being running into his parent's bedroom after hearing his father scream at the TV. When Miller looked up at the screen, he saw the Cowboys star flash across it, and that sparked everything.
"That's where I fell in love with football," Miller said. "The Cowboys have been interwoven with my career playing football. I never thought that I'd have the opportunity [to play for them], I lobbied a long time, but for that really to come true, it's a dream within a dream."
Now, similarly to the movie Inception that Miller mentioned multiple teams, he gets to live that dream.
"It's really cool…" Miller said. "I always wanted to play in the National Football League, and then you play for the Dallas Cowboys. We're just going deep with it, Year 16, a dream within a dream. It's super cool."
Miller, who said Tuesday that he considers himself to be a first-ballot Hall of Fame teammate, already has a history with some of the players along Dallas' defensive line. He has known Donovan Ezeiruaku for two years, and said he's "my guy," the young guy in the room he gravitates towards as he's done with other players in the past. Miller has also known Rashan Gary for the last 6-7 years, and is familiar with Quinnen Williams.
One player he didn't know until the two met at the Sack Summit, an event featuring a plethora of the NFL's best defensive linemen, was Kenny Clark. It didn't take much for Miller to find common ground with Clark, and it won't take much to find it with the rest of his teammates either.
"A lot of these guys, I've been fans of them before, and you just build off our common goal to win a Super Bowl." Miller said.
