Steelers first-round draft pick Heath Miller is signed and sealed, and now it's up to last year's No. 1 pick to deliver him the ball.

Miller, a 6-foot-5, 255-pound tight end from Virginia, came to a five-year contract agreement with the Steelers yesterday that will pay him $6.89 million. He receives a $3.95 million signing bonus, $2.5 million of it now and $1.45 million in March. He receives $4,542,000 in the first two seasons of the deal and can earn as much as $9.4 million with incentives over the life of the contract.

His next chore is to report to training camp in Latrobe with his new teammates Sunday night and begin building a rapport with Ben Roethlisberger, team's first-round pick last season and author of the most sensational rookie season of any quarterback in history.

The Steelers have not thrown to the tight end much over the past decade, but they have not had one with the receiving credentials Miller brings. He caught 144 passes in three years at Virginia and scored 20 touchdowns. He received the Mackey Award as college football's best tight end last season.

Offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt said it's now up to Miller to develop a chemistry with Roethlisberger.

"The tight ends, they're in the reads, in the progressions but we haven't had a chemistry there," Whisenhunt said. "Hopefully, with the addition of Heath, who is a very talented receiver, we'll be able to do some things there to get the ball to the tight end."

Steelers tight ends caught only 22 passes last season, with starter Jerame Tuman leading with nine. No Steelers tight end has caught 20 passes since 1995.

"That position, per se, has been very unselfish for this team in the last few years," said Whisenhunt, who played tight end in the NFL and coached that position with the Steelers before his promotion last year to coordinator. "That started with Mark Bruener, since I've been here. They'll do whatever it takes. If that means they have to block, then they have to block. Certainly, in our offense, they're very big in our power running game."

While Miller will be expected to block and do it well, he also brings a dimension to the position the team has not had since Eric Green left after the 1994 season.

"I think Heath obviously is well versed in catching the football," Whisenhunt said. "He did a lot of that in college and was very successful at it.

"His transition to the pros will be a little different, I'm sure, at times. Certainly, there are some things there he can do because he's a big guy who can run and catch the ball really well that will help us do that. So, hopefully, we'll be able to involve the tight end more."

Also, seventh-round draft choice Noah Herron, a running back from Northwestern, agreed on a three-year deal that will pay him $955,100, including a signing bonus of $30,100.

Those two rookie contract agreements leave the Steelers with two of their eight draft picks unsigned -- second-rounder Bryant McFadden and third-rounder Trai Essex. Both players are represented by Roosevelt Barnes, who is helping negotiate a contract extension with his partner, Eugene Parker, for veteran receiver Hines Ward.