Anthony Miller has been the Chicago Bears fourth wide receiver in recent weeks
It was news early into the season when the young and ascending Darnell Mooney was getting snaps over former second-round pick Anthony Miller. However, as the year went on it became clear that the Chicago Bears viewed Miller as strictly a slot receiver who they did not trust in a bigger role.
Unfortunately, Miller never gave any reason to believe that he needed more work. In fact, throughout the year he has consistently proved them right.
One of the bigger facts of note is that over the past two weeks Javon Wims has out-snapped him. Wims has played 57 snaps over the past two weeks, while Miller has played just 46. That is a huge drop, especially considering Wims was in the dog house for punching a player a month ago.
Still, the Chicago Bears trust Wims more than they trust Miller. Part of this can come downplays like the one below. It is a screen to David Montgomery, but watch Miller and then watch Wims.
Miller is running around and possibly looking at Wims as he blocks. He turns around and sees two Jaguars that he could have, and should have been blocking. Then, he does the minimum to get his body in front of them and lets what could have been a bigger play, turn into both defenders getting their hands on him.
Now watch Wims. He has his man picked up, he is locked in and he is pushing him downfield. A touchdown could have been sprung with the blocking of Wims. Watch Miller walk off after missing the block too. You do not read much body language from this author, but you can tell that Miller is over being in a Matt Nagy offense, and Matt Nagy is over him.
Wims has still run fewer routes than Miller the past two weeks. Wims has run 23 routes to 32 for Miller. However, Wims is on the field for 34 blocking snaps, while Miler saw 14.
You can say that the Bears being in the lead and running the ball more has led to more Wims. You can also say that if the Bears want to lose predictability moving forward, they will start to bump the playing time of Javon Wims and we will see even less of Anthony Miller.
Now that we have seen two straight games with Wims over Miller in snaps, it is possible that the transition has just started.