Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2022 season is over, the team finishing above .500 but failing to make the postseason, we turn our attention to the offseason and everything that means. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on broader contexts, reflecting on a player’s development, either positively or negatively, over the course of the season. Other evaluations will reflect only one immediate event or trend. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: WR Anthony Miller
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: With the Steelers making a bold move at wide receiver to bring in veteran Allen Robinson, all but guaranteeing he will occupy a spot on the 53-man roster, it gets all the more crowded for Anthony Miller as he tries to find a home again.
Allen Robinson and Anthony Miller spent three years together as teammates with the Chicago Bears. Robinson signed there in free agency in 2018 the same year the Bears made Miller their second-round draft pick.
Robinson was the big-ticket item, producing at a high level, with multiple 1000-yard seasons. Miller had a couple of decent years, but Chicago saw enough of him by the end of his rookie contract, trading him to the Houston Texans.
That didn’t last long, and by midseason he found himself on Pittsburgh’s practice squad. He was called up as an elevated player for exactly one game, catching one pass for two yards. But the Steelers have re-signed him each of the past two years. in 2022, it seemed on the outset he might make a push for the 53-man roster before an injury knocked him out of the running.
He’s back again, but his roster prospects took a hit with the Steelers making the move to bring in Allen Robinson as their new number three receiver. Factoring in Calvin Austin III and at least one special teams receiver, either as a return man or as a gunner, you have a group of five right there with no guarantee there will be a sixth.
I wrote just a couple of weeks ago that Miller’s stock was up, at least at that point, with the Steelers having not yet addressed the wide receiver position. It was always likely—arguably a given—that they would, but pulling off a move like trading for Robinson was not going to be on a lot of people’s Bingo cards.
That doesn’t mean he can’t still make the team, but it does get a lot harder, especially with his rather limited history on special teams. A draft pick at the position might all but doom him. But he should of course be brought into training camp and be afforded every opportunity to earn his spot. That’s the way this all works, right? If he earns a place on the team, he gets one. But he’ll really have to earn it, even more so now.
