NFL Training Camp Tour: Roethlisberger to Steelers TEs: ‘Don’t try and be Heath Miller’

021916Ben Roethlisberger still can’t quite wrap his mind around the fact that he and the rest of the Pittsburgh Steelers are at training camp and Heath Miller is nowhere to be found.

For almost all of Roethlisberger’s years as an NFL quarterback, he knew he could rely on his talented tight end to find those seams in the secondary, to make the clutch catches, to keep the chains moving.

Now, with Miller having retired, Roethlisberger needs to look elsewhere for dependability and production from the tight end spot.

“That’s the biggest thing for me, being here 13 years and 12 of them with Heath Miller, a guy that I love to death,” Roethlisberger told Jim Miller and Pat Kirwan at the Steelers’ camp in Latrobe, Pa. “To not see him out here and still tough. It hasn’t really sunk in yet. So to not have him out here but to have other tight ends that are stepping up, doing some different things — Jesse James, X-man (Xavier Grimble), DJ (David Johnson) — stretching the field a little bit.

“It’s different, but it’s good. I told them the other night, ‘Listen, don’t try and be Heath Miller, because you’re not going to be Heath. Don’t try and fill those shoes. Be the best Jesse and best X, best you can be.’”


You can listen to his interview here.

And if you missed the Steelers’ Friday Night Lights, you can watch a video montage here.