True to their word, the Dallas Cowboys were not done shopping for their defense this summer. With training camp in Oxnard nearly complete and the regular season opener less than a month away, Dallas inked former All-Pro pass rusher Von Miller to a one-year, $5,500,000 deal.
Miller, 37, brings with him a Hall of Fame level resume that includes Defensive Rookie of the Year, three All-Pro selections, eight Pro Bowls and a Super Bowl title. Coming off a nine sack, 36-pressure season in Washington, Miller fits the profile of what the Cowboys need in 2026.
Without a true star pass rusher on the roster, the Cowboys plan to implement pass rush by committee. Miller’s nine sacks are more than anyone in Dallas achieved last season, so a natural conclusion would be to place him atop the pecking order this season. But what do the stats support?
In 2025, Miller logged 420 defensive snaps. Based on Pro Football Focus tracking, 289 of his snaps were on pass plays. With a total of nine sacks, he averaged one sack every 32 passing plays. At 18 pass rush plays per game, it was about half-a-sack per week.
Since sacks are a fairly unstable stat and pressures are much more predictive year-to-year, pressures probably offer better insight into 2026. With 36 pressures in 2025, he posted a pressure rate of 12.5 percent. For perspective, Donovan Ezeiruaku posted a pressure rate of 10.5 percent, Dante Fowler posted 12.1 percent, James Houston posted 13.7 percent, and Jadeveon Clowney posted 17.6 percent. So, Miller fits into the same ballpark as Dallas’ two remaining edge rushers, Ezeiruaku and Houston.
At age 37, Miller is expected to slide into somewhere in the rotation. As someone who typically rushes from the left side, he’s unlikely to infringe upon Ezeiruaku’s snaps and will probably be taking snaps from Rashan Gary. For those wondering at home, Gary posted a 13 percent pressure rate in 2025, which was technically better than Miller.
For as impressive as Miller’s resume is, he hasn’t posted a Pro Bowl season since 2019 and his nine sacks last season were the most he’s posted in five years. Given their age, it’s fair to say Ezeiruaku and Houston will both improve on their pass rush numbers while Miller will probably regress to his five-year mean. That’s not to say Miller isn’t a good addition, just that he raises the floor of the rotation, rather than raises the ceiling of the rotation.
Miller could possibly be a team leader in the sack department this season, but it’s likely that will have more to do with the proportion of pass rush opportunities he gets than the quality of rusher he is. With that said, he’s a solid pickup for a team that doesn’t know what they have in edge rushers this year, and he comes at a very reasonable price.
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This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: What advanced stats say about Cowboys’ newest pass rusher Von Miller
Reporting by Reid D Hanson, Cowboys Wire / Cowboys Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Reid D Hanson, Cowboys Wire | USA TODAY Network
