Like actually run his routes correctly?
Miller was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2018 draft (pick 51 overall) out of Memphis. Many experts loved Miller as a WR prospect. Matt Miller for Bleacher Report compared him to Brandin Cooks. A SB Nation draft profile said he was a 1st round talent. Lance Zierlein gave him a 6.20 draft grade and a 3rd round projection. All the draft evaluations were very similar. They praised Miller's competitiveness and work ethic. He was a former walk-on and the coaches said he was a hard worker. Experts were concerned about dropped passes and a foot injury. At his pro day, Miller had a 6.65 sec 3 cone (substantially better than Atwell, even though Miller was nearly 50 pounds heavier), had a 39'' vert jump (half a foot better than Atwell) and ran 4.48 sec in the 40. He was 5'11'' tall and 201 pounds.
Miller has struggled his first 3 years in the NFL. One of the plays cited by the press as being emblematic of his problems happened against the Rams in 2019. Miller doesn't run the route precisely and when Trubisky throws the pass, the ball bounces off of Miller's hands, resulting in an INT for Troy Hill. A couple of plays later, Jared Goff throws a deep pass to Cooper Kupp for a 50 yard gain, setting up a Todd Gurley TD plunge from the one yard line. The Rams go up 10-0 and eventually win the game 17-7.
Both Matt Nagy and Mike Furrey (the WR coach, who is a former Rams player) have been openly critical of Miller's work ethic and professionalism. The Bears coaches said that when Miller was a rookie, they would hold their breath, just hoping that Miller would go to the right place in his route. They had concerns with his big ego, how he lacked attention to detail in his route running, struggled to grasp the playbook and didn't prepare properly.
Furrey said, "[Miller] was allowed to get away with a lot of stuff [in college] and his statistics were phenomenal, but that stuff just doesn't work in the pros." Explaining why Miller hadn't gotten more playing time, Furrey said, "The reason why [he's not on the field] is because you can't trust him." The other Bears WRs once jokingly voted Miller the WR most likely to be late to practice.
Despite the coaches telling the media that Miller had improved since his rookie year and turned over a new leaf, things didn't improve in either of his 2nd or 3rd seasons. Recently, the Bears put Miller on the trading block, but there doesn't seem to be much interest in him from other teams. So much for Miller being the next Brandin Cooks. All of the draft profiles praising Miller for his work ethic appear to have been off.
