General Manager Ryan Pace made a number of moves

to help the Bears field the most exciting and competitive roster in his tenure. The draft day trade with the New England Patriots that landed the 51st overall selection was used to bring in Anthony Miller http://www.thebearslockerroom.com/authentic-adam-shaheen-jersey , the competitive Wide Receiver from Memphis. Our draft guru, EJ Snyder, had Miller as his #3 WR in the draft and pegged him as “the best possible fit” for Matt Nagy’s offense and a perfect complement to the free agent acquisitions of Allen Robinson II and Taylor Gabriel. He brings an energy and passion to the field and I was fortunate to get a few minutes with him to talk about his shoulder, his role in the offense, and where he sees this team headed in the future. Jeff Berckes: Anthony, I understand you’re out in Los Angeles working with Panini trading cards right now. What’s going on out there and what have you been up to?Anthony Miller: Panini has some cool events going on. A lot of the guys are just kickin’ it, rookies from this class. We’ve done a lot of card signing. It’s just a good time out here. I’ve been hanging out with Calvin Ridley, Nick Chubb, Kerryon Johnson, DJ Moore and a few other guys.One of the Anthony Miller autographed trading cards from PaniniJB: I’ll have to get one of those for my collection! First thing’s first – how’s the shoulder? Are you looking at a surgical repair and what kind of recovery timeline are you looking at?AM: It’s doing good. I’m actually getting surgery on it in 3 weeks. I’ll be laid up for a minute, looking at 4 or 5 months of recovery. It was definitely a risk playing with it.(For those of you doing the math, Anthony is expecting to be fully recovered by sometime in the summer.)JB: I think I can speak for all Bears fans when I say we’re sending positive thoughts for a full recovery and definitely have a lot of respect for being able to play through that injury. Despite missing a few games with that shoulder issue, you were able to have a successful rookie season, leading the team with 7 TDs. How do you see your role in this offense moving forward? AM: I see it expanding even more than you guys have seen. The reasons I was limited in the offense was one, it took me a little time to get a grasp of it and, two, was because of my shoulder. I wasn’t able to play how I really wanted to. I was just making plays however I could. And so Coach didn’t put a lot of my plate this year and I totally understand that. But it’s going to be way different next year. I’m going to be fully incorporated into the offense.JB: It seemed like you were taking most of your snaps out of the slot and sharing some of those targets with Trey Burton. Do you see yourself working more on the outside or expanding your role in the slot?AM: I’m going to be everywhere, man. Inside, outside, doing reverses, everything. Coach Nagy, his offense, you have to know every position on the field because at some point you are going to be at those positions so you just gotta know it. JB: You mentioned Coach Nagy and I just have to ask, from the outside perspective, it looks like he’s really been able to develop a culture that everyone on the team has bought into. What’s he doing to bring you guys together as a team? AM: He just lets us be us. He doesn’t try to make the team be something it’s not. He lets us play loose, have a lot of fun out there so that the experience is the best that it can be for us. Basically, he just lets us have fun. I think that’s all a coach needs to do in order for his players to work for him and he works for us. JB: You were able to make the transition to the NFL quickly – was there a veteran on the team that took you under their wing and what advice were you given to help that transition?AM: Most definitely. I was blessed to be around a lot of great veterans. Guys like Josh Bellamy, Allen Robinson II, Taylor Gabriel. Guys like that were constantly in my ear each and every day on and off the field telling me what to do Womens Mitchell Trubisky Jersey , what not to do, just making my rookie year a lot smoother than it could’ve been.JB: You mentioned Josh Bellamy first and I find that interesting. He seems to be really well liked by his teammates and serves as one of those “glue guys”. What is it about him that makes him so special to that wide receiver unit?AM: The thing is, that guy, he’s willing to do anything to help the team win. He’s just like me. He’s relentless, he comes to work every day with a mindset of no matter what is going on, we’re going to get to work no matter what. He’s just a great guy to be around. He brings a lot of great energy to the team.JB: Going against this Bears defense every week in practice certainly challenges this offense to be better. I know you’re a competitive guy and want to go against the best. What defensive back do you enjoy going against the most in practice because he makes you better?AM: Yeah, good competition. I like going against Eddie Jackson. He’s considered one of our best defensive players. He had a phenomenal season this year. I wish we could’ve had him in the playoffs. That’s a guy I like going against in practice. We make each other better. Bryce Callahan is a good guy to go against there at practice too. He is definitely a sticky defender, has very good feet and hips. That’s another guy we were missing out on toward the end of the season. A couple of unfortunate injures, we wish we had him out there. He’s a good guy to go against. JB: You mentioned injuries and the Bears, while overall very healthy, had a few instances where key players missed a couple games – Mack with the ankle, Trubisky with his shoulder issue, you with your shoulder. It never seemed like you guys were rushing back too soon – is that Nagy’s philosophy of trying to keep you guys protected?AM: Yeah, Coach Nagy didn’t push any of us at any point. If we felt like we could go, we were going to go but we were always smart about it. He would never make too big of a deal out of whether we would go or not. We trust our doctors a lot. The doctors did a great job with the injuries this year. We really didn’t have many injuries though. JB: What are your feelings on all these special plays that Nagy calls that get defensive guys involved? It seems like everyone is having fun with it - does that help everyone buy in more? AM: Yeah, that’s what I like about this team. It’s so fun. Coach is willing to do anything to throw a wrench in the game to confuse the other team. He’s very good at that and whatever way he can find to do that, he’s going to do that and his way is throwing defensive guys onto the offense from time to time. We love it; we have a lot of fun with it. JB: Can we expect you to throw TD pass next season?AM: Definitely. I had a pass this year, it wasn’t for a TD but I know he’s going to have something for me down the road. JB: What would you say was your personal highlight from your rookie year?AM: Man, winning the NFC North Championship, that was crazy, even though I didn’t have any catches that game. Just being in that atmosphere, just being a part of that great win, that great team win, it was awesome man. It was a packed house that night as well. JB: That’s an awesome answer and I’ll tell you it was a great highlight for Bears fans too. As we head into the long off-season, do you have any message for Bears fans?AM: Definitely be looking forward for a continuation of last year. I know we didn’t finish a few games that we should have. The games that we did lose, we lost by one point. So, we’re very close to becoming the team that we want to be. I’m confident that we will be that Super Bowl team, if not next year, it’s going to be real soon. We’re bringing that trophy home. Thank you to Panini for setting up the interview and to Anthony Miller for the time. You can find Anthony on Twitter @AnthonyMiller_3 and I’m found @gridionborn. I’ve made my thoughts on Kyle Long very clear in some of my recent T Formation Conversation podcasts Pat O'Donnell Jersey , but in case you missed any of those, here’s what I think about the Chicago Bears’ 30-year old offensive guard. Even though he carries an $8.5 million cap hit in 2019, I can’t see the Bears moving on from him. While he did suffer through a third straight injury plagued season, this is the first offseason he’s not going to be rehabbing from an injury since 2015. Kyle Long battled back from a mid-season foot injury to play the final game of the regular season and their wild card game, and I think it’s fair to say he was a bit rusty. But he’s a leader on that offensive line and in the locker room, and if I was making the call, I’m keeping him on my team.Cutting him would be a $3 million dead cap hit, but waiting til June 1st would lower the dead money to $1.5 million, but if you do let him go, what are the alternatives? Hope a young player steps up? Draft a mid or late round rookie to compete at that spot? Bring back Eric Kush or Bryan Witzmann to start at right guard?I’ll pass on all those options and start Long on my o-line at right guard. A backup plan is needed, so get one of those veterans to return, and find some youth to go in the pipeline, but Kyle Long is a football player. For the record, I think a restructure to get his 2019 cap hit to come down would be ideal, but contract restructuring doesn’t happen very often. I threw this question out to a few of my colleagues at WCG to get their take and here’s what they had to say. Jacob Infante - The Bears should aim to keep Kyle Long, but not at his current price. He is slated to have an $8.5 million cap hit in 2019, a number that is not acceptable given his 22 missed games in the last three years. While the Bears would free up a lot of cap space - which they currently don’t have a lot of - by cutting Long, doing so would open up a hole on their offensive line that they simply don’t have the resources to fix this offseason. With no draft picks in the first two rounds, little cap space and a weak class for guards in both free agency and the draft, the odds that the Bears would find a solid replacement this year would be slim. Ultimately, I believe they should keep Long around for at least another season, but they should definitely make it a priority to restructure his contract this offseason.Erik Christopher Duerrwaechter - In my personal opinion, I feel the Chicago Bears should keep Kyle Long as a mainstay on their offensive line. He’s the head hog of that group, he’s an incredible leader in the locker room, and he’s still a tough monster to anchor the line with when he’s healthy. He’s also not scheduled for any surgeries this offseason. Yes, cutting him would save the Bears a few million. Yet cutting him also opens a big hole at RG in a projected market that’s all but dry in terms of depth. I believe he’s a candidate for a restructuring/renegotiation of his contract. Then again they might just proceed as normal and aim for continuity in the trenches. WhiskeyRanger - Short answer, yes. Long answer, it’s probably going to take him renegotiating or restructuring his contract. $8-9 million a year is a bit steep for a guard who only averages 8 or 9 games a year, and will be on the wrong side of 30 next season. If they can get his contract to be a bit more cap friendly http://www.thebearslockerroom.com/authentic-kyle-long-jersey , then it’s a no brainer. He’s a mauler when healthy, and both a leader in the locker room, and an emotional leader on the field. Plus, the Bears do seem to have decent depth behind him (after a rough start Witzmann was actually pretty solid), which can fill in well in the likely event he misses more games. So, I’d like to see him stay, and hope for healthier days myself.Ken Mitchell - The Bears should, 100 percent, keep Kyle Long. Period. He will have the entire offseason surgery-free to build himself up, and I expect him to come into camp roaring.If they can reduce his cap hit? Fine, no problem, but replacing him leaves a huge hole in our line that I honestly don’t think we will find anybody better to fill. Long struggled in the playoff game, but as somebody who’s coming off of a broken bone in my leg, I can tell you there’s no way he was at 100 percent or anywhere near that in his two games back. No chance at all.I bring Kyle back, absolutely, at full price or a discount. We aren’t that short of cap space, we just aren’t.Robert Schmitz - The Bears should keep Kyle Long. He’s a talented leader of the line and provided quality play all throughout the year. You need guys like Kyle that can rally your team in both good times and bad if you want to make a deep run in the playoffs. Maintaining line continuity is also key, so Bobby Massie’s potential departure makes it all the more important to keep Long around.That said, the Bears should also restructure Long’s contract. He’s got fairly large base salaries for 2019-2021 that can be reduced and turned into signing bonuses to lighten his cap hit at the cost of adding dead money to each year. Given he’s finally entering an offseason without needing a surgery, I think now is the right time to bet on Long’s next few years, increase the Bears available cap space, and push in all their chips for a 2019/2020 championship.Sam Householder - Definitely keep Kyle Long. He showed a lot of toughness returning for the postseason after an injury and he’s sacrificed his body heavily playing through injuries. Granted, I know that means little to teams when it comes time to manage the cap but Long was the face of the team during the dark times, so I think it stands to reason that, even with a restructuring that he deserves to come back for some good times. He’s still playing at a starting level, even if it’s not typically for 16 games.We’re all unanimous in wanting the Bears to keep Kyle Long, but what about you guys? Vote in the poll!