Anthony Miller has emerged as a key playmaker for the Chicago Bears during their recent run of success in the past month. His big plays against Detroit on Thanksgiving helped create the comeback win and he delivered a key touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys a week later. The kid is playing with more confidence than he has all season, starting to resemble that promising 2nd round pick he was last year. Certainly a nice turnaround from how things started.
Through the first nine games of this season, Miller was almost invisible. He made just 17 catches for 218 yards and no touchdowns. Then out of nowhere, he’s caught fire in the past four with 24 catches for 313 yards and a touchdown. He has really come into his own. This begs the question. Where was this guy when the season began. Bears wide receivers coach Mike Furrey had an answer, and it was certainly a candid one.
“It’s more of the mental part, it was more of the maturity part than it was the ability. And I think right now he’s been humbled enough and throughout the process that you have to show up every day, you have to come to work every day, you have to prepare. You can’t just go out there and play playgrounds on Sunday or you won’t play.”
Basically what he’s saying is Miller came into the year with a big head, thinking he had everything figured out. After making just four catches in his first four games, he quickly found this was not the case. To say nothing of his frequent issues running the wrong routes and dropping passes. Here’s the full quote via Arthur Arkush of Pro Football Weekly.
Anthony Miller found the fine line with confidence
Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin had a great line about something he learned during his college days at Miami. Being confident in yourself is a great thing, but as a kid you sometimes venture into the realm of overconfidence and it takes a large helping of humble pie to slap you back to reality. This is what happened to Miller in the first half of the season. He got cocky after such a strong rookie year and needed reminding that the NFL is not a league of handouts.
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If a player wants respect, he needs to earn it. That comes through constant hard work. Talent is only part of the equation. The young Bears receiver got his lesson and seems to have learned from it. Now he’s become their unquestioned #2 guy opposite Allen Robinson, giving Mitch Trubisky another weapon. It is a huge reason why the offense has finally started to get on track. Hopefully, he’ll put everything to good use in Green Bay on Sunday. The Packers held him without a catch last time.
