In their profile of the linebacker, NFL Draft Network outlines two key strengths in his gameplay — range and tackling ability. “Miller is a highly effective delayed blitzer who has the closing speed to eliminate room quickly between him and targets,” they note. “Targets that encounter him immediately go down when coming into contact with him.”
Those skills are badly lacking in the current Lions defensive unit. The roster still has the run-obsessed fingerprints of Matt Patricia all over it and their defense is filled with the kind of slow, space-gobbling players that you’d expect from a coach who believes football is won in the trenches. Now that Patricia is out of a job and the general manager who enabled his outdated philosophies went with him, the Lions will need to retool their roster to fit the modern understanding of the game.
Brad Holmes, Detroit’s new general manager, has always been a fan of linebackers who can really move. He hunts the traits he likes especially aggressively in late rounds of the draft. Because the team has virtually nothing in the mold of defensive players Holmes is accustomed to targeting, it’s reasonable to believe that he’ll get to work acquiring players who better fit his system.
In that light, it’s easy to see how the dots connect between Ventrell Miller and the Detroit Lions. Miller is an athletic linebacker with tackling skills who wouldn’t be difficult for a team to get into the building. The Lions need athletic linebackers with tackling ability to replace their slow, clumsy players at the position. Miller’s potential as a bargain buy could be too much for the Holmes to resist.
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