It’s hard to not root for Bruce Miller. The poor guy went from a defensive end in college to one of the best fullbacks in the NFL, and now gets the ‘luxury’ of learning another new position in Chip Kelly’s offense: tight end. He’s been sort of the man of the hour lately with an article/essay he wrote for Chat Sports, giving something to talk about in the slow parts of the offseason. It wasn’t anything earth shattering, but it gave some good insight into one of the 49ers more under the radar players.
Miller spoke on the Ted Ramey Show on KNBR and had a few more interesting comments, some echoing his article on Chat Sports. Here’s what he had to say:
On going from playing defense, getting drafted by the 49ers and becoming a fullback and now becoming a tight end, if he’s used to learning something new every couple of years:
That seems to be the trend, but luckily for me all the positions I’ve played recently resemble each other a little bit. Maybe not so much offense and defense, but maybe fullback and tight end will carry over a little bit.
On how he’ll be utilized in Chip Kelly’s system:
I’ve been asked to do a lot of different things. Just the spring and offseason so, definitely looking forward to the opportunities coming, and hopefully they like what they saw during the spring.
On how things looked to him during the spring and the difference in systems from Jim Harbaugh and Jim Tomsula:
It’s a lot different for a lot of us. I guess the main thing that you can take away from this spring is everyone is there, everyone’s healthy and the practices were really competitive which was great. Guys were really improving and making strides in their games that I think will really carry over in the season.
On the Gabbert and Kaepernick competition:
I think we’re in a pretty fortunate situation where we feel like we have a number of guys that can lead our football team and have played well for us in the past. We have one heck of a competition coming up, but we’re looking forward to that and all those guys have done a great job for us at some point.
On his level of expectation after a 5-11 season and getting things back in the right direction:
I think that we’ve taken the steps to start in that direction. This is definitely going to be a difficult football season. We’ve seen who have to play, and we have some good football teams. We have a lot of work to do, but we have a competitive, young talented football team and we’re going to give it our best and play our best football that we can.
On any second year players improving [Jaquiski Tartt and Arik Armstead were used as examples]:
Absolutely. Those two guys they looked great in the offseason program. I know they’ve been working their tales off. A lot of the young guys, especially just running around in helmets, they all looked great and really athletic. They were all making plays for us and we will expect that when they put the pads on as well.
On his Jim Harbaugh comments in the article he wrote for Chat Sports and the energy he brought to the team:
I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of great football coaches, but he was one of the favorites. Just his energy and enthusiasm he brought ever day. It definitely rubbed off. Had a lot of great years and a lot of great memories. I enjoyed playing for him.
On Chip Kelly so far and how there seems to be more to him than what he shows the media:
I think that’s definitely Chip, he doesn’t want to give you too much. Really enjoyed working with him, what he’s brought to our team, and just talking football with him, I’ve enjoyed that a lot and had a lot of fun playing in his offense for sure.
His project with Chat Sports:
Just started up recently. Just trying to get some positive things out there and give some insight. The one I just did was pretty insightful just from the draft and my journey through the NFL. Just trying to get some things out there and interact with people and the fans and give them a different insight.
On if he likes reflecting on looking back where he came from or does he like looking ahead to the future:
I definitely think it’s beneficial to look back and see how far you’ve come and the steps it took you to get there and the hard work to get where you at. I think time to reflect on that is huge. Keeps you grounded and can keep you focused on those goals that you set at the beginning.