Zach Miller, Adrian Amos Honored As Bears' Brian Piccolo Award Winners

(CBS) Bears tight end Zach Miller and safety Adrian Amos were named the team's 2016 Brian Piccolo Award winners in a ceremony Tuesday at Halas Hall. The award is given annually to one Bears veteran and one rookie who best exemplify the courage, loyalty, teamwork, dedication and sense of humor of the late Brian Piccolo. Bears players vote on the award winner.

Miller, 31, had a breakout 2015 after missing the entirety of the previous three seasons with serious injuries. In a career year, he had 34 catches for 439 yards and five touchdowns.

"A prestigious award here, I'm just honored," Miller said. "brian Piccolo embodied a lot of different things, and to have that under my name now feels really good. It's a special award."

A fifth-round selection out of Penn State last year, the 22-year-old Amos started all 16 games for the Bears in 2015, recording 67 tackles and a sack as a rookie.

"It means a lot, but mostly because my teammates voted on it," Amos said. "I feel like it's something where they respected me enough to vote for me for this award, so that means a lot."

During Tuesday's ceremony, Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio revealed Amos had offseason surgery for an undisclosed injury. Amos didn't reveal what body part was hurt, saying simply that he's not limited moving forward.

Amos had dealt with a shoulder injury in the final week of the regular season. He didn't confirm that was the injury, instead speaking generally.

"It's something I've been playing with for a long time, and I finally got it done," Amos said.  "I'm good now.

"I couldn't even tell you specifically what it actually was. But it was something that was hard on me. A lot of people got different things that are wrong that need to get fixed, but I got mine fixed. I waited until after the season to get it done. I'm good now."