During the 2021 offseason, the Raiders signed Kolton Miller to a monster contract extension to keep him in Las Vegas for the foreseeable future. He is the first first-round pick by the team to receive a contract extension from the Raiders since they picked Darren McFadden in 2008.
But despite the massive contract, Miller still doesn’t get quite enough respect in the NFL media. He’s coming off the best year of his career and yet some outlets aren’t sure he is even a top-20 offensive tackle in the NFL.
In a recent piece by Anthony Treash of Pro Football Focus, he wrote about the top-32 offensive tackles in the NFL heading into the 2021 season. Miller did not rank inside the top-20. Instead, he finished at No. 23. Here are Treash’s thoughts on Miller going into the year:
“I’ll be the first to say I was wrong about Kolton Miller. It was one of the most questionable picks of the 2018 NFL Draft and was widely viewed as a reach — he ranked 92nd on PFF’s Big Board. And through his first two seasons, he ranked second-to-last among all left tackles in PFF grade.
Then in 2020, Miller came out a far more polished pass-blocker. He went from ranking dead last among left tackles in pass-blocking grade in 2018 to 24th in 2019 to 11th in 2020. Miller’s run-blocking is still on shaky ground, but that’s something the Raiders can live with. What’s important is that he’s now holding his own in the passing game and keeping Derek Carr worry-free about his blindside.”
With Miller grading out as the 11th-best pass protecting offensive tackle in the NFL last year, it’s hard to justify him falling outside the top-20. On top of his steady improvement, he’s only 25-years old.
Not putting Miller inside the top-10 is understandable given that he isn’t the most dominating run blocker. But leaving him outside the top-20 is simply a mistake.
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