Steelers on to Plan D or E in long quest to find tight end to succeed Heath Miller

The familiar calls of “HEEEEEEEATH” from the Heinz Field crowd have faded in the four years since Heath Miller announced his retirement.

There probably still are some fans, even with Miller at 37, who are still making those elongated cries in an effort to bring him back to Pittsburgh.

Since the best tight end in franchise history abruptly walked away from the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2016, the team has gone several routes in an effort to replace him.

None have worked. General manager Kevin Colbert gave it another shot last month when he signed Eric Ebron to a two-year, $16 million contract.

It was the Steelers’ second significant attempt to find the next Miller via free agency. They also twice traded for veterans and once spent a mid-round draft pick.

None of those investments paid dividends, at least not statistically. The best season any Steelers tight end recorded over the past four seasons pales in comparison to what Miller typically produced: Vance McDonald’s 50 catches and 610 yards in 2018. Miller had more catches in each of his final five seasons, and he had more receiving yards than that in five of his final six seasons.

Total annual production from all Steelers TEs post-Heath Miller

'19:McDonald/Vannett/Gentry/Grimble
53 rec, 408 yds, 3 TD

'18:McDonald/James/Grimble
86 rec, 1,119 yds, 6 TD

'17:James/McDonald/Grimble
62 rec, 592 yds, 5 TD

'16:James/Green/Grimble/Johnson
75 rec, 840 yds, 6 TD

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) April 3, 2020

Remember, too, gaudy numbers never were the calling card for Miller, who rated among the NFL’s most reliable and best-blocking tight ends. And yet Miller’s statistics his final season (60 catches, 535 yards, two touchdowns) were better than the combined numbers of all Steelers tight ends last season (53-408-3).

Miller’s stats in his second-to-last season (66-761-3) in 2014 were roughly the equivalent of the Steelers’ entire tight end corps in 2017 (McDonald, Jesse James and Xavier Grimble combined for 62-592-5). Miller played 12 games as a 30-year-old in 2012, and his stat line (71-816-8) arguably was better than the aggregate of the four men entrusted to replace him in 2016 over 16 games (75-840-6).

#HEEEATH pic.twitter.com/KtCHxguG3Z

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) April 23, 2019

The Steelers are hopeful they finally have the answer in Ebron, a former No. 10 overall draft choice who two years ago had the type of yardage (750) and reception (66) production reminiscent of Miller. Ebron also caught 13 touchdowns, tied for most by any tight end in a season since 2013.

“He’s a super-talented pass-receiving tight end,” Colbert told reporters earlier this week. “There’s definite athleticism, red-zone production and run after the catch. He’s really a premier-type of receiving tight end in this league when he’s healthy.”

Those final three words — “when he’s healthy” — are crucial. It’s something that’s thwarted the Steelers’ efforts at tight end many times in the recent past.

The biggest splash the Steelers made in finding Miller’s successor came weeks after he retired. They signed Ladarius Green to a four-year, $20 million contract.

For that investment, the Steelers got only 18 receptions, 304 yards and one touchdown over six games. Preventing Green from being a serious contributor were a concussion and chronic ankle problems.

The memory of those problems were stoked this week when Ebron spoke of his season-ending ankle injury last fall. It required surgery.

“There was a lot of mess in there,” Ebron told reporters on a conference call. “A lot of mess.”

“Maybe he pulled a string or two. Who knows?”

How @steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger might have earned an assist on getting @Ebron85 to Pittsburgh.https://t.co/wpKj4qpPum

— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) April 3, 2020

Should Ebron join Green as damaged goods acquired by the Steelers, they wouldn’t be the only ones. McDonald, too, has been held back by injuries. He has missed 13 games — and parts of several others — because of a variety of ailments over the three seasons since the Steelers acquired him in a swap of late-round draft picks at the end of the 2017 training camp.

McDonald took up more than $10 million in salary-cap space (per spotrac.com) over those three combined seasons. Green ate up $7.1 million for his six games. James, the most consistent and durable post-Miller Steelers tight end, left for the Detroit Lions during 2019 free agency. Last year’s fifth-round pick, Zach Gentry, had one catch for 4 yards over 50 snaps played in four games as a rookie.

Can Ebron break the Steelers’ post-Miller curse?

“Mike Tomlin pretty much told me he was going to put me in the best possible situation to succeed with my abilities,” Ebron said. “That was all I needed to hear.”

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