The Texans anticipate having veteran wide receiver Anthony Miller back for Sunday's road game against the Cleveland Browns, according to coach David Culley.
Miller was held out of the season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars as a precautionary measure after he returned to practice last week from a dislocated right shoulder suffered in the preseason against the Green Bay Packers.
Danny Amendola, signed last week to a one-year, $2.5 million contract, operated as the slot and caught five passes and one touchdown.
A former Chicago Bears second-round draft pick, Miller didn't sustain any structural damage when he got hurt at Lambeau Field.
Miller previously underwent surgeries on his left shoulder while playing for the Bears after experiencing dislocations.
Texans coach David Culley was noncommittal when asked how the playing time will be divided with Miller's return and Amendola catching every pass he was targeted on against the Jaguars.
“Well, we’ll just kind of see with practice how it goes, and we’ll decide at the end of the week how we want to handle that," Culley said. "And again, with injuries, you never know what’s going to happen. Basically, we could’ve played him this past week, although we wanted to make sure that everything was good with him. He practiced, he did a really good job for us, but when we got to that decision, we wanted to make sure that for the long haul, that he’s ready to go, and we’ll just see how it goes this week.”
Traded to the Texans along with a 2022 seventh-round draft pick in exchange for a 2022 fifth-round draft pick the day before players reported to training camp, Miller is entering the final year of his four-year, $5.353 million rookie contract that includes a $1.21 million base salary this season.
Miller was linked to multiple trade rumors throughout the offseason after catching 134 career passes for 1,564 yards and 11 touchdowns during his time with the Bears before being traded to the Texans.
After catching seven touchdowns as a rookie, Miller combined for just four touchdowns over the past two seasons.
Aaron Wilson has covered the NFL for 20 seasons, including the Texans, Baltimore Ravens, Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars. He has previously written for The Houston Chronicle and The Baltimore Sun. He’s on Twitter: @AaronWilson_NFL and Instagram: @aaronwilson7128.
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