Never had a woe-is-me attitude

Miller was essentially bedridden for six weeks, and his mobility afterwards was limited.

With no football, and no place to go, Miller didn't mope. Instead, he found new ways to keep himself entertained.

"He has never had the whole, 'Why did this happen to me' type of attitude," Kristen said. He's always just taken this injury day by day."

He picked up playing the piano, just to challenge himself, and played more rounds of FIFA on Xbox than he remembers.

"I had a number of things I could do to try to keep me busy," Miller said. "It's weird because I look back on it and in that moment time just feels like it's standing still. It's just so slow, and now we're already approaching a year, it's like it just went by in the blink of an eye."

Away from his Bears teammates, Miller also found time to forge a special friendship with another young football player, Alex Ruiz.

Ruiz was a high school junior quarterback at Linfield Christian School in Temecula, Calif. Three weeks before Miller's injury, Ruiz suffered a nearly identical one on Oct. 6. He ran a zone-read and opted to keep the ball. He got caught up by defenders at the line of scrimmage and waited for the whistle. Before the play was blown dead, one more player ran into the pile. Ruiz went down, but his cleat got caught in the grass. His right leg snapped.

"I just heard a pop and then everyone was on top of me and they all got off screaming for help," Ruiz said. "I just kept telling myself this is a dream, this is a dream, this isn't happening."

After waiting 25 minutes for an ambulance to get to the field, Ruiz was rushed to a hospital. Originally, it was believed it was just a dislocated knee. Later, he received the same diagnosis Miller would: a torn popliteal artery.

Three weeks later, Ruiz was watching the Bears-Saints game on TV and saw Miller's injury live. He thought nothing of it at first.

His mom, though, learned of Miller's injury and reached out to the NFL star. She told him her son had just suffered the same injury, maybe the two could talk.

Nearly two months after the Oct. 6 injury, Ruiz got a text from a number he didn't recognize while he was playing Fortnite with his friends. It was Zach.

He told him they had some tough times ahead, but together, they'd get through it.

The two swapped stories and formed a fast friendship. Ruiz talked Miller through some of the things to expect following the surgeries. Miller, in turn, kept Ruiz motivated on days he felt like giving up.

"He's gonna be the person to tell me to get my butt out of bed and go face the day because that's just the type of person he is," Ruiz said. "That's the type of person I am. We're both competitors and people who like to compete to win. And that's really what life is, and I think if football teaches us one thing, it's exactly that. Football just teaches us that no matter how hard it gets, there's always a will to win and there's always a way to win, so if you have that grit and you have that desire to truly be the best, and you take that into life, nothing's going to stop you."

Ruiz wasn't as lucky as Miller, though. The discovery wasn't made early enough. The tissue had been permanently damaged, and it was determined that amputation would be the best route. On Feb. 26, Ruiz's right leg was amputated. Since then he's received a prosthetic leg and returned to some of his normal routine.

On Friday night, 385 days removed from his injury, Ruiz went back on the field to play in his team's senior night game. On his second play in the game, late in the first quarter, Ruiz connected with a receiver for a touchdown pass.

While Ruiz has counted on Miller for support, Miller knows it has gone both ways.

"As much as people think of Alex leaning on me, I was doing the same thing leaning on him."

In Ruiz's reality, Miller sees what his alternative could have been.

"That could have very well have been me," Miller said. "I look at that situation and I feel extremely bad. I feel sad, a lot of feelings that you feel for Alex, but that's really real. That could've been me within an instant."

An extraordinary situation

On June 4, Bears general manager Ryan Pace called Miller into his office. He told him that the Bears were going to sign him to a one-year league-minimum contract. Miller would be a part of the team and have access to the Bears training facility and staff to continue his rehabilitation.

The next day, the team placed him on the physically unable to perform list, effectively ruling him out from playing for the 2018 season.

"Most of these situations they don't really end the way that they are for me," Miller said. "It's an extraordinary situation where the loyalty that the franchise has to me has been unbelievable, and that was for sure an emotional meeting for me just because I felt very grateful and thankful for what they've done for me and continue to do for me."

As a result, Miller has done his best to pay it back.

Though unable to play, that hasn't kept him from contributing to the team.

He's worked with the tight ends, providing another set of eyes and a veteran voice.

He cuts game film each week and helps game-plan for upcoming opponents, breaking down schemes and situations with the younger tight ends. But his role has extended beyond just a player-coach, to mentor, cheerleader and friend.

"He's somebody when you're having a bad day you'll go hang out with and he'll cheer you up immediately," tight end Trey Burton said. "He doesn't have to be there, but he is."

Miller's been there for other players too, particularly second-year quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.

"He's like an older brother to me," Trubisky said. "To have someone that truly believes in you, there's no substitute for it. So I just think he's just so genuine in the way he believes in other people and how much he loves this game and loves being part of this family."

When he's not working with the tight ends or mentoring the younger guys, he's working with trainers to rehab.

He's made huge strides from a year ago, but he knows the reality is he may not play again.