Jaguars sign FB Bruce Miller, waive Connor Slomka

The Jags are adding a veteran fullback in Bruce Miller, who hasn’t played since the 2016 preseason.

The Jacksonville Jaguars made a few transactions Saturday by adding veteran fullback Bruce Miller and waiving undrafted rookie fullback Connor Slomka. The swap of the two players kept the Jags’ roster at 80 players as they head into a new phase of training camp that will include padded practices Monday.

Like Slomka, Miller will be the lone fullback on the Jags’ roster. This is worth noting because the Jags haven’t utilized a true fullback since their 2017 season when they had Tommy Bohanon.

Miller was drafted out of Central Florida by a Trent Baalke led front office with the San Francisco 49ers back in the 2011 NFL Draft (as the 211th overall pick). As many are aware, Baalke is now with the Jags front office as their director of player personnel. Still, many fans have found it alarming that Miller hasn’t played since the 2016 preseason and will be the oldest player on the team at 33 years-of-age.

The reason behind the abrupt stop to Miller’s career was an incident where he was arrested by the San Francisco Police Department and charged with assault on two men. Per the report explaining his arrest, Miller got into a physical altercation with a 70-year-old man and his 29-year-old son at a Marriott Hotel after being intoxicated and trying to enter the elderly man’s room.

The father was reportedly punched by Miller, which resulted in both going to the hospital and Miller eventually being arrested after being examined. Miller  pleaded not guilty, and with the Jags signing him, it’s possible he was exonerated of the charges from the incident, which happened just under four years ago.

With 47 starts to his name, Miller will enter his tenure with the Jags with 28 career carries for 62 yards as a rusher and 76 receptions for 734 receiving yards and three touchdowns through the air. Those stats seem to indicate that he was a superb lead blocker with good ball skills, something Marrone spoke on this week to the media when asked about Slomka.

“Now, if it’s that type of player, you’ve got to ask yourself, what are we getting out of that player from the standpoint of the passing game? What are we getting out of that player from a standpoint of special teams? Connor has that ability, he’s tough, he can run well, he does have some ball skills.” Marrone said this past Thursday.

“The other thing you look at is okay, you understand that goal line, short yardage, or maybe some situations you’re going to have to bring someone over and those snaps during the year, when you look at it from a percentage standpoint, are low.”