https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/2021 ... -camp-2021Anthony Miller didn’t make it to the 2021 season as a Bear after all.
The Bears are shipping the enigmatic wide receiver to the Texans, the NFL Network reported Saturday night, just three days before the team’s veterans were set to report to training camp. It’s unclear what the Bears are getting in return for Miller, who is entering the final year of his rookie contract.
Miller’s last game was a telling one: he was ejected for fighting in the wild-card playoff game against Saints cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who had forced Javon Wims’ ejection using similar tactics earlier in the year. Because of Wims’ experience, the Bears held a 15-minute meeting the week of the playoff game to wide receivers not to get suckered into fighting Gardner-Johnson. Miller did anyway — and despite knowing he was needed with fellow receiver Darnell Mooney injured.
Chairman George McCaskey told WMVP-AM later that week that “I have a bigger problem with Anthony’s ejection [than Wims’] because they sat him down and they told him, ‘Listen, watch out for this player. He’s a punk. He’s going to try to get under your skin.’”
Asked whether Miller would return for 2021, McCaskey said, “that’s not up to me.”
The Bears have been frustrated with Miller’s inconsistency since they traded up to draft him in the second round of the 2018 draft. A talented slot receiver who can beat man coverage, Miller posted his best season in 2019, catching 52 passes for 656 yards and two touchdowns. The year before, as a rookie, he caught seven scores.
Miller caught 49 passes for 485 yards last season. The Bears tried to push Miller to improve. In May, receivers coach Mike Furrey said that the team had enough depth to not have to rely on him.
“It’s not going to be a need-base, you know — we don’t need you,” Furrey said. “We’ve got guys that are going to be able to produce. You better be a pro, you better be on your details, you better do what we’re asking you to do.”
Coach Matt Nagy later felt compelled to say the Bears still needed Miller, and that the coach was just trying to explain that the team added options over the offseason. The Bears drafted North Carolina slot Dazz Newsome to compete with Miller; he broke his left collarbone in early June but was expected to be ready around the start of camp.
“[Furrey’s] message was about the depth that we have at that position,” Nagy said in May. “And that you know all of those guys, including Anthony Miller, that this is the most competition that we’ve had. ... He’s super motivated to have a great offseason and training camp and control what he can control.”