In a shocking move, on Friday, the Pittsburgh Steelers' long time tight end Heath Miller decided to hang up his cleats. This came out of almost nowhere, besides Miller and perhaps some people in the Steelers organization.
Miller was regarded as a humble guy, who put the team first and was a great person and teammate. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said that Miller is by far the best teammate that he has ever had, and even voted for him as the team MVP every year. When Miller told Roethlisberger that he was hanging up his cleats, Roethlisberger started crying. That was how much that he meant to the Steelers organization and his quarterback.
He was the 30th overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, the year after Roethlisberger was drafted.
He played in 168 regular season games, 592 receptions, 6,569 receiving yards, and 45 touchdowns, all records for a Steelers tight end. He also started 15 postseason games and won two Super Bowls, Super Bowl XL and Super Bowl XLIII.
He will be sorely missed by everyone in with the Steelers, fan, player, the Rooneys or otherwise. Words can't describe what he meant for this team, and how underappreciated and clutch he was.
This puts a huge hole in the Steelers depth chart at tight end. They have now second year tight end out of Penn State Jesse James who looks promising, Matt Spaeth and Xavier Grimble. This makes tight end most likely a draft need, or a free agent signing.
It was an interesting time for Miller to retire, with the Steelers being Super Bowl contenders this year, but now they have a big void to fill in one of the best offenses in football.
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