When the Raiders selected Kolton Miller in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft, they knew there would be some significant growing pains. Coming out of UCLA, Miller was a fantastic athlete who was still learning how to be an offensive tackle.
During the first year of his NFL career, he battled through rookie growing pains on top of several significant injuries and it impacted his play. In his sophomore season in the Silver and Black, he made significant strides, but he still wasn’t quite where the Raiders had hoped he would be after two seasons.
In 2020, Miller played the best football of his career. In his 14 starts, he played 891 snaps and rarely allowed pressure from the blindside. He even improved as a run blocker, although that will never be his biggest strength. In his three seasons in the NFL, he improved significantly every year.
Kolton Miller’s season grades have improved in each of his years in the league.
2018: 49.6
2019: 65.0
2020: 72.9 pic.twitter.com/87Lj2HLmDB— PFF Las Vegas Raiders (@PFF_Raiders) February 19, 2021
As the Raiders enter the 2021 offseason, he and center Rodney Hudson are the only “sure” things on the offensive line. Both played at a high-level in 2020 and project to be cornerstones of the offensive line for the foreseeable future.
While the pick of Miller at No. 15 in the 2018 NFL Draft hasn’t always looked like a great one, he’s showing the kind of improvement that Jon Gruden was hoping for when they selected him. Don’t be surprised if Miller continues to develop at a linear rate for the next several years. He’s well on his way to making the Pro Bowl in the near future.
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