ORCHARD PARK - No one was more disappointed by how Von Miller performed for the Buffalo Bills in 2023 than Miller himself.

The future Pro Football Hall of Famer endured a nightmarish season as he tried in vain to return from a torn ACL that he suffered on Thanksgiving Day 2022. It seemed almost impossible for a player with his pedigree to be as invisible as he was - three tackles and no sacks on 258 snaps spread across 12 regular-season games, then one tackle in the postseason.

But Tuesday, following practice at One Bills Drive, Miller expressed optimism that he is well on his way to setting the foundation for improvement in 2024.

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“I have continued to grind and continued to work on my knee,” Miller said. “Everything revolves around my health and how my knee is feeling. So far I’ve been practicing without a knee brace and that’s something I could not do last year. So I know during the season once you get in the mix and the games, I should be able to go.”

Literally anything he can give the Bills would be an upgrade over 2023. Miller had none of the explosion off the edge that has marked his 123.5-sack career. He was merely an 11th body on the field, a player the opposing offense barely had to consider as it attacked the Bills.

However, Miller felt like late in the year he was starting to turn a corner and now the hope is that with another offseason, he can build on that.

“My last three games of the season - Miami, Pittsburgh, Kansas City - were my best games of the year,” he said. “I hate that it waited all the way to that point but that’s what it took. So I’ve been trying to use that to springboard into this season.”

In those three games, Miller totaled five pressures after managing just 12 in his first 11 games, though none of those five resulted in a hit on the quarterback. It was progress, but certainly not much.

Having lost their leading sacker, Leonard Floyd, in free agency, the Bills need Miller to at least show a semblance of life this year. They have Greg Rousseau and A.J. Epenesa back on the edge, they signed veteran free agents Casey Toohill and Dawuane Smoot, and they drafted Javon Solomon in the fifth round.

On the surface, that looks OK, but it would certainly be better if the 35-year-old Miller can, at the very least, require attention from the offensive line to free up the others.

“There was flashes of some Von Miller there at the end of the year,” said Bobby Babich, the former linebackers coach who was promoted to defensive coordinator and spent part of his offseason familiarizing himself with every player on defense. “There was a couple plays in there where you were like, ‘Okay, I see Von.’

“Von’s working hard to get back. The expectation is that minute by minute, we’re just continuing to get better and continuing to hone back in on the skills and to train the skills that are needed for him to impact the game like we need him to.”

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Rousseau, who has happily come under Miller’s umbrella to glean as much knowledge as he can, said, “One thing about Von since the day he’s gotten here, he’s had the same consistent attitude and work ethic, day after day. Von’s one of those dudes that you don’t really have to worry about what type of work he’s going to put in or his intent, what he wants for himself or the team. He’s one of those guys who puts the team first and he’s gonna keep doing his thing.”

Putting the team first was certainly what he did back in March when he volunteered to take a pay cut to help the team’s difficult salary cap situation.

“He wants to win,” general manager Brandon Beane said shortly after the restructure of Miller’s contract was made public. “To basically cut it in half and go below his guarantee, I don’t know if I’ve seen a player do that, especially someone that’s going to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer like him. So, much respect for him.”

In essence, at a time when the Bills had to release several highly-paid core veterans like Tre’Davious White, Jordan Poyer and Mitch Morse because they couldn’t afford to keep them, Miller agreed to lower his cap hit by $8 million which gave the Bills a little more flexibility to sign free agents.

Miller has two Super Bowl rings from his time with the Broncos and Rams, but he wants another and he knew that without more money to spend, Beane was going to have a tough time upgrading Buffalo’s roster.

Now, to be clear, Miller is still getting paid a lot of money this year. His base salary was reduced to $1.5 million but he got around $7 million back as a bonus that went straight into his bank account.

Plus, there are several incentives tied to statistical milestones that include games and snaps played and sacks which, if he achieves, might push his salary back to where it originally was.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported that the sack incentives are as follows: He gets $1 million for two sacks, $2.5 million for four sacks, $4 million for six sacks, $6 million for eight, $8.6 million for 10.5 and $9.6 million for 15.

To make what he was scheduled to make in 2024, he’d need to hit that 10.5-sack plateau which seems highly unlikely - he hasn’t surpassed 10 since 2018 - but regardless of what he earns, it will be added to the 2025 cap and the Bills would gladly cut that check.

“It’s definitely been trying,” he said of battle back from his second major knee injury, “but at the end of the day all I’ve got is my optimism and my faith. I know what I can still do and you just got to keep pushing. Whenever God says it’s over with, it’ll be over with, but I still think I’ve got a couple years left and I’m going to give it my all.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out every other Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Von Miller hopes to bounce back after disappointing year with Bills