On Friday, the Raiders officially announced they had given left tackle Kolton Miller an extension. The deal is reportedly for three years, which, on top of the two years he has left on his rookie deal will keep Miller a Raider until 2025 and pay him up to $18.5 million per season.
That a big deal for Miller, who has just three years under his belt as a pro. The 6-8, 325-pounder admitted the Raiders offer took him by surprise.
“I was actually surprised coming out of year three going into year four,” Miller said over video conference call. “You dream about this when you’re a little kid and through the season. But I’m definitely excited to continue my career here. Continue to work hard and prove to the coaches here that I’m invested and I’m going to continue to get better.”
Just two years ago Miller was coming off a rookie season in which he gave up 14 sacks. He was already dealing with criticisms that he was a reach after starting just one season at left tackle at UCLA. Then he suffered a knee injury early in his rookie season and struggled to play through it.
The criticisms only got louder at that point.
“They always say don’t listen to the noise, but I picked up some of that my rookie year,” Miller said. “But when an injury or little setbacks happened, I didn’t let that affect me. I feel like as a player you can’t let that affect you. What I want to prove most to my coaches, to my teammates, to the fans, that to really invest and prove myself as much as I can to be their left tackle, to protect DC. That stuff can distract you, can get you off the path to where you want to go.”
Miller’s second season, he showed improvement with his sacks allowed dropping to eight. Though that was still not enough to entirely prove his doubters wrong. Last season, however, he gave up just two sacks. It’s just one season, but those steady improvements were enough to earn him a second contract, becoming the first Raiders top pick to get another contract since Darren McFadden.
The key now is for Miller to keep his arrow pointing up so he can earn that contract.
“The mentality to take it a day at a time,” Miller continued. “I know there was a lot of adversity my rookie season. I struggled through injury and of course, being a starter straight out of college. But no I just took it day by day, proved as much as I can. I’m going to continue to improve. I’m going to get stronger, I’m going to improve my technique. It doesn’t stop here. I just took that mentality and it’s really helped me along the way.”
With the pass protection numbers looking good, Miller’s primary area of improvement is in the run game. He has a former Pro Bowl guard to his right who he is leaning on to help him in that area.
“The focuses; continue to develop my footwork, continue to work on my pass sets, the run game — really that extra snap you see — you can look to my side, Richie [Incognito] really you can see the power from his hands to his hips, exploding into the person,” Miller added. “That’s great that we got to keep Richie and that was one of the things I learned from him just watching him play. But, yeah, I’m going to continue to develop that and my strength, explosiveness, those are some areas that I can improve.”
Incognito is easily the most veteran of the Raiders’ current offensive line group. But with Rodney Hudson and Gabe Jackson both traded this offseason, Miller is the leader in terms of snaps for the Raiders, having started nearly every game the past three seasons. Now he’s set to be the anchor of this line for the foreseeable future.
Leave a Reply