Even amid a global pandemic, Von Miller was able to get together with his fellow defenders to discuss the art of the pass rush. There just was a twist on the event this year.
Miller hosted his fourth annual pass rush summit Thursday, holding a virtual session with a number of notable NFL edge rushers. The summit was held virtually this year due to COVID-19 and was produced with the help of the NFL Network features department.
Miller was joined by former NFL defensive end Chuck Smith and current players such as Chandler Jones, Cameron Jordan, Myles Garrett, Calais Campbell, Khalil Mack, Shaquil Barrett, Arik Armstead, D.J. Reader and Bradley Chubb. Rookies Isaiah Simmons and A.J. Epenesa also were among those in attendance.
Smith, who now trains players on pass rushing, shared a clip of the summit Saturday morning on YouTube .
"You all know I'm a huge fan of all of you guys, and I think we can all learn something from each other and that's why we're here," Miller said in the video. "That's why we've all joined this pass rush summit -- to link and learn and get better. I've always had the mindset that once you get complacent that's when you get downhill."
NFL Network's James Palmer detailed the session Friday on NFL NOW.
"It's kind of a film study in a sense," Palmer said. "To where Chuck Smith, the pass rush guru, went through certain guys' film, and they could talk about what they did in that situation. and they could be asked by different guys in the panel about why they did this, why they used their spin move in this particular instance."
The summit lasted about 20 minutes longer than the planned 90 minutes and about 700 people, including high school athletes, watched the session online, per Palmer.
It also was a charitable event for VonSacksCOVID.org, Palmer added. Miller tested positive for the virus in April and launched the campaign to help provide more than 500,000 meals to those facing hunger due to COVID-19.
