Quinn Harris/Getty Images Anthony Miller warms up prior to a game against the Detroit Lions on December 06, 2020.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are planning to have free agent wide receiver Anthony Miller in for a visit on Tuesday, this according to a report by NFL Network reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala.
With JuJu Smith-Schuster facing surgery, the #Steelers are planning to bring in free agent WR @AnthonyMiller_3 for a physical tomorrow, I’m told by someone apprised of the team’s plans. The former second round pick of the #Bears is known as tough, and a good worker.
The move comes in direct response to the dislocated shoulder that wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster suffered during Sunday’s 27-19 victory over the Denver Broncos, an injury that is expected to require surgery and a four-month recovery period, per ESPN senior NFL insider Adam Schefter.
Steelers’ WR JuJu Smith-Schuster dislocated his shoulder, is undergoing surgery later this week and is expected to be sidelined about four months, which likely would end his season, per source.
The painful injury—which required a trip to the hospital in the wake of Sunday’s game—effectively ends Smith-Schuster’s season, and perhaps his Steelers career.
The 24-year-old wideout is on a one-year, $8 million contract this season and will be an unrestricted free agent come early 2022.
In his 63 games with the Steelers Smith-Schuster has 323 receptions for 3,855 yards and 26 touchdown catches. But this season he authored just 15 catches for 129 yards, and his only score came on a rushing play.
Anthony Miller Scored Seven Touchdowns as a Rookie
As for Miller, the 5-foot-11 receiver has been in the league since 2018, when the Chicago Bears drafted him No. 51 overall out of the University of Memphis.
The 27-year-old had a promising first few seasons in Chicago in which he started a total of 11 games and had 85 receptions for 1,079 yards and nine touchdown receptions, as per Pro Football Reference. But his Bears career was characterized by inconsistency—both on his part and on the part of Bears quarterbacks—and he has also admitted to having a tense relationship with the coaches in Chicago.
That helps explain why the Bears traded him to the Texans in July 2021, following a year in which he caught 49 passes for 485 yards and two touchdowns—a season that ended with him getting ejected from Chicago’s postseason loss to New Orleans for shoving Saints defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
Anthony Miller’s Tenure in Houston Was Short
Apparently, Miller didn’t impress the coaches in Houston, though, as he played in two games (with one start)–recording five catches for 23 yards and a touchdown–before getting released on Oct. 6. All told he has 49 games of NFL experience, with 139 career receptions for 1,587 yards.
He also had a standout 38-game college career in which he had 238 catches for 3,590 yards and 37 touchdowns, recording at least one reception in every game he played. The Memphis native left school with career, single-season and single-game records for catches, yards receiving and touchdown catches. In addition, he was a consensus All-American in 2017, becoming the first non-specialist to win that honor for the Tigers. That year he broke his own single-season school records for catches (96), receiving yards (1,462) and receiving touchdowns (18).
According to NFL reporter Aaron Wilson, Miller had a visit with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 11, but now he’s aiming to sign onto Pittsburgh’s practice squad instead.
Anthony Miller didn’t sign with the Jacksonville Jaguars’ practice squad after visiting them Monday, according to a league source, and instead he plans to sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers’ practice squad @SportsTalk790
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Ex-Steelers RB Wendell Smallwood Released by Jaguars
In other transactional news from Oct. 11, the Jacksonville Jaguars released ex-Steelers running back Wendell Smallwood.
The #Jaguars released RB Wendell Smallwood, WR Devin Smith and OT Austen Pleasants from their practice squad and worked out G Jared Hocker, OT Jonathan Hubbard, OT Elijah Nkansah and RB Kerrith Whyte.
Jacksonville inked Smallwood to its practice squad on Oct. 6. The former fifth-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles signed with the Steelers on July 28, 2020, and spent most of the 2020 season on the team’s practice squad, appearing in one regular-season game.
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