The Bears placed tight end Zach Miller on the physically unable to perform list on Tuesday, which means that he won’t be returning to the field in 2018 after suffering a knee injury that’s required him to undergo nine surgeries since being injured last October.
The severity of the injury makes it no surprise that Miller won’t play this season, but he’s not giving up on the hope of returning to the field at some point in the future. Miller said “positivity has been one of my qualities that’s helped get me through all this stuff” and that he’s going to do all he can to give himself a chance to continue his career.
“With my doctors and everyone I spoke to, we’re not going to put any set limitations on this,” Miller said, via ESPN.com. “We’re just going to take it as it goes. There has not been a definitive, ‘you can never do this again.’ That hasn’t been talked about. It’s to approach this as you are planning to get back to where I can be myself and play football and then when that time comes, some of that is out of my hands. So, I’m just going to do as much as I can to get that point and see what happens.”
The Bears signed Miller to a one-year contract on Monday that will pay him $458,000 while he’s on the PUP list. Miller said he plans to help the other tight ends while continuing his rehab and it’s hard to imagine his upbeat attitude in the face of injury won’t be of some help to his teammates as things unfold in the coming months.