Chicago Bears: Could Anthony Miller rewrite franchise history at WR?

Weaknesses

Okay, okay. So, Miller isn’t perfect.

Truthfully, as a route-runner and technician at the receiver position, only Calvin Ridley might be significantly more advanced than him, especially for a college player.

Also, though he’s not quite OBJ, he has a very solid athletic profile on the whole.

Still, his solid-not-stellar athleticism is one issue from which some of his shortcomings on the field stem.

Take that earlier chart comparing him and OBJ, as well as what you see on film, for instance.

They have the exact same 10-yard time, displaying their quickness and acceleration off the snap. But Miller doesn’t have that “long” speed everyone talks about to really eat up turf.

And as tricky as those shorter, choppier strides he takes can be with shifty routes, that inability to unfurl his legs and open up his stride will encourage NFL corners to play tighter on him as they probably won’t have to fear him running away from them.

If they do that, they force him to try to use his body to shield them from the ball. With bigger, longer cornerbacks, that’s not always going to work if he can’t simply escape from them.

As such, he sometimes overembellishes his routes to deke defenders when he might benefit from being more fluid.

Also, despite his very large hands, he has struggled at times with securing catches and general ball security. Though this ball placement from his quarterback isn’t perfect, this is a bad drop on third down with clear separation.

For Miller, focusing on the little things and smoothing out some of his rough edges as a route-runner will be of paramount importance when he starts working with his coaches this summer.