Schlereth: Von Miller needs to ‘play more disciplined football’

In November, Denver Broncos pass rusher Von Miller jokingly compared offside penalties to “taxes” for the sacks he gets.

“I’m going to get it. The sacks are going to come. The false starts and the offsides are like taxes for those,” Miller said at the time. “You have to pay taxes. I would like to keep my taxes minimal.”

But, among myriad issues with the 5-11 Broncos squad in 2017, “Schlereth and Evans” host Mark Schlereth pointed to Miller’s penalties, saying the All-Pro cleaning up that part of his game is part of the club moving on from a down season.

“The bottom line is you got blown out in a bunch of games. You weren’t a very good football team. There are plenty of guys who need to do more,” Schlereth said.

During the 2017 campaign, Miller was flagged a career-high 14 times — with 11 of those for either defensive offside or neutral zone infraction. And while only eight of those counted — five declined and one offsetting — Miller tied for the fourth-most times flagged in the NFL, per NFLPenalties.com.

“To me, Von Miller’s got to play more disciplined football,” Schlereth said. “He can’t be one of the top players in the league as far as jumping offsides is concerned.”

Schlereth said instead of risking needless penalties, Miller should instead trust his skill set and know “what he’s done is going to be good enough to get to the quarterback”

“At the end of the day, he’s going to have double-digit sacks, and that’s a great season regardless of who you are, especially when you’re getting double-teamed on every play,” Schlereth said.

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.