Tag: Kolton Miller

Raiders, Jets Wednesday injury report: T Kolton Miller, CB Marcus Peters both miss practice

T Kolton Miller, CB Marcus Peters both miss practice Wednesday

Wednesday the Raiders took the practice field preparing for their attempt at an encore against the other New York City team. And they did so with a few important players.

Most notably, they were without left tackle Kolton Miller with a shoulder injury. They were also without CB Marcus Peters with a knee injury.

Still not practicing were LB Divine Deablo (ankle) and FB Jakob Johnson (concussion).

The Jets were without LB Chaz Surratt and T Billy Turner.

Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 9 win vs Giants

Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 9 win vs Giants

You won’t see many more lopsided victories than the Raiders had over the Giants Sunday. It was made all the more amazing when compared to how they looked over the first eight games of this season.

They stopped the Giants with a three-and-out to start things off and then drove for a touchdown. The next three Giants drives were a turnover on downs, consecutive sacks to put them in third and 27 and a punt, and a three and out.

Then midway through the second quarter, the Raiders drove for another touchdown, intercepted the ball, scored a third touchdown, intercepted the ball again, added a field goal at the end of the first half, and another one to begin the third to go up 27-0.

It was enough to make your head spin. At least if you were the Giants.

Ballers

HC Antonio Pierce

He brought the Raiders ready to play and itching to get him a big win in his debut of the post-Josh McDaniels era. The players came out pumped and the Giants got caught under the wheels of that bus.

The offense scored over 20 points for the first time this season, Josh Jacobs had a season-high rushing yards, and the defense had eight sacks, two turnovers off interceptions, and four others on downs. Then they sparked up cigars afterward to celebrate being out from under Josh McDaniels’s thumb and finally having fun again.

DE Maxx Crosby

Crosby came into the game outside the top ten in sacks. And left tied for second with TJ Watt. And even with three sacks in the game, he was still more valuable than his sack total.

The first Giants possession saw them line up in fourth and one to go for it. Then Maxx got the right guard to jump and they had to punt instead. The next drive saw the Giants again go for it on fourth and one. This time Crosby led the way in making the stop at the line for no gain.

The third drive ended with Crosby chasing down Daniel Jones for the sack. Jones attempted to get away from Crosby and tore his ACL.

Already up 27-0 in the third quarter, Crosby saw to it they didn’t close that gap. He got pressure on first down and got his second sack on third down to force another three-and-out. That series pretty much slammed the door on the Giants’ chances of coming back. But just for good measure, he would add one more sack early in the fourth quarter.

Even with the Raiders defense finally stepping up to match his energy, he still led the way for this team. And had cigars ready for the whole team after the game.

CB Amik Robertson

With the Raiders up 14-0 in the second quarter, the Giants knew they needed to make a big play. QB Tommy DeVito launched one for the end zone and Robertson flew over, got up in the air and picked it off, much like he did to win the game against the Packers a few weeks ago. He would get up and return this one to th 40-yard-line and the Raiders would capitalize on the turnover with their third touchdown of the day.

Early in the fourth quarter, he made a hard hit on a catch to knock the ball out on fourth down. And a bit later he added a forced fumble to his stat line just for good measure. Have yourself a game, Amik.

RB Josh Jacobs

Set the tone early and kept it going. He had 31 yards on on four runs on the opening touchdown drive, 33 yards and the touchdown run from two yards out on the second scoring drive, and scored again from two yards out on the next drive.

He already had a season-high 85 yards rushing by half time and the Raiders led 24-0. He surpassed 100 yards for a moment before a loss on a run put him back at 98 yards.

DT Bilal Nichols, DT John Jenkins

The 34-year-old was playing like he was ten years younger, showing rare pass rush and sideline-to-sideline run stopping abilities for a 327-pounder. He got pressure on the second play of the game to force an incompletion and the Giants started the game with a three-and-out.

The second Giants drive saw them line up in third and three and Nichols made the run stop short of the sticks. Then on fourth and one, he teamed up with Crosby and Jenkins to stop the tush push for no gain.

The first possession of the second quarter saw Jenkins race down the line to make a tackle for loss in the left flat, leading to another three-and-out.

Pressure was coming from all over the Raiders line, but Nichols was doing some nice complementary football with Crosby in this one. On consecutive plays in the fourth quarter Nichols had a pressure that led to a Crosby sack and then Crosby had pressure that led to a Nichols sack. That’s how it’s supposed to be done.

QB Aidan O’Connell

The rookie scored on the opening drive while delivering a strike on a slant to Jakobi Meyers that went for 25 yards.

The next scoring drive, he reminded us that Hunter Renfrow is on this team with consecutive connections to the shifty slot receiver for 19 yards and 13 yards to put the Raiders in first and goal. They scored the TD on the next play.

Following the Amik Robertson interception, O’Connell threw deep on the first play for a gorgeous 50-yard hookup with speedster Tre Turner to put the Raiders in first and goal at the ten. They scored three plays later.

He opened the second half by completing passes on four third downs, converting the first three and putting them in field goal range with the fourth one to make it a 27-0 game.

The rookie didn’t have massive numbers, but he delivered some strikes, ran the offense perfectly, and didn’t turn the ball over. Not much more you can ask of him than that.

LT Kolton Miller, LG Dylan Parham, C Andre James, RG Greg Van Roten, RT Jermaine Eluemunor

The entire Oline played every snap, didn’t give up a single sack, and opened holes for Josh Jacobs to hit 100 yards and two touchdowns.

On the second TD drive, Eluemunor and Van Roten made key blocks on a 15-yard Jacobs run and Eluemunor laid a key block on the touchdown run. Miller, Parham, and Van Roten got out left to make key blocks on a 15-yard catch in the left flat by DeAndre Carter to get things going in the third quarter.

Honorable Mention

WR Jakobi Meyers — Scored the Raiders first TD on a sweep and made some nice blocks in the game as well.

RB Ameer Abdullah — Did some great dirty work on offense and special teams.

WR Tre Tucker — Made an incredible diving 50-yard grab that set up the Raiders’ second touchdown of the game.

Busters

None

This was about as flawless a performance as you’ll see on both sides of the ball. The Raiders were up 24-0 by half time and were up 27-0 midway through the third before the Giants got on the board for the first time. Hard to find blame for anything when one team scores that much and gives up nothing.

Antonio Pierce attended all Raiders OL meetings last week, they responded in big way

Antonio Pierce attended all Raiders OL meetings last week and they responded in big way

For as bad as the Giants have been this year, their defensive line has been pretty good. And defensive coordinator Wink Martindale is known for bringing the heat on opposing quarterbacks.

The duo of Kayvon Thibodeaux and Dexter Lawrence have a combined 11.5 sacks and 24 QB hits. But on Sunday in Vegas they combined for zero in both categories.

The entire starting five for the Raiders played every snap in the game. Those five from left to right were LT Kolton Miller, LG Dylan Parham, C Andre James, RG Greg Van Roten, and RT Jermaine Eluemunor.

New interim head coach Antonio Pierce — who spent the latter half of his ten-year NFL career as a player with the Giants — was determined to make sure these guys were put in the best position to help the Raiders offense function at a high level.

“I was in every meeting with the Oline this week. I was their best friend,” said Pierce, with a smile. “I was encouraging them, I was trying to learn the terminology obviously, coming from the other side of the ball the last two years and not really focusing on their terminology, their techniques, their fundamentals and how they coach and talk. But being over there just to give words of encouragement because that’s a good group. And they’re a tight knit group. And I think that was showcased last night. If you really go back and watch the game, watch where guys come off the ball to the second level. It was impressive. They set the tone the first drive of the game. They are the reason why we’re going to move forward and keep moving forward is because of those guys.”

Along with allowing zero sacks in the game and just one QB hit on rookie Aidan O’Connell, the line opened up holes for Josh Jacobs all game long. It led to Jacobs having his best game of the season, and for a moment late in the game going over 100 yards (before a tackle for loss put him back to 98 yards).

Jacobs setting the tone along with the ability for O’Connell to survey the field and find his receivers went a long way to helping the offense score 30 points when they hadn’t broken 20 points in the previous eight games this season.

Raiders LT Kolton Miller has not allowed a pressure since Week 5

Raiders LT Kolton Miller has not allowed a pressure since Week 5

The Raiders are a top-heavy team filled with several superstar players at the top of their respective positions. Davante Adams might just be the best receiver in the NFL and Josh Jacobs led the league in rushing yards in 2022.

And then there is Maxx Crosby, who is putting together a DPOY season. The Raiders also have two of the top specialists in the league in Daniel Carlson and A.J. Cole. But the one elite player who doesn’t get enough hype in Las Vegas is Kolton Miller, who has developed into one of the NFL’s top left tackles.

In a recent article by Pro Football Focus, they wrote about Miller and how good he has been as a pass protector this season:

Miller has not allowed a single pressure over the past two weeks and leads tackles with a 90.8 pass-blocking grade over that time span.

Miller currently has a PFF grade of 83.0 on the season, tied for the fourth-best in the NFL. He has the third-highest pass-blocking grade (85.7), only behind Tristan Wirfs and Christian Darrisaw.

One of the reasons why the Raiders have been so improved on the offensive line this season is that Miller has taken another step. He’s been one of the NFL’s best tackles this season and that has helped everyone else on the offensive line. He is a stud and is only getting better each season.

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NFL trade deadline: 5 Browns trade targets on bad teams

Could the Browns look to be aggressive at the deadline?

The Cleveland Browns sit at 4-2 on the season, but it has not been pretty over the last two games. You know what they say though, good teams find ways to win ugly, and the Browns have certainly done that over the last two weeks. Nearing the NFL trade deadline, however, could the team look to make a move or two to upgrade their roster? Names like defensive linemen Denico Autry and wide receiver Jerry Jeudy fit their systems like a glove and could be on the move.

While the Browns could also be looking to make moves to ship off players like wideout Donovan Peoples-Jones as they are expected to be both buyers and sellers, the emphasis must be on improving their roster, especially on the offensive side of the football.

Keeping it relatively realistic, here are five NFL trade deadline targets that fit what the Browns do on both sides of the ball.

5 veteran offensive tackles the Browns could pursue on the trade market

It is slim pickings, but there are some potential offensive tackle upgrades out there.

The season is not lost for the Cleveland Browns. While the past two weeks have been a rough roller coaster ride to sit through with the looming injury to the shoulder of quarterback Deshaun Watson, they still have eight of their last 12 games against AFC opponents, including three against their division rivals. If they want to shove another chip into the middle of the table to make a run, however, the Browns need to take a deep look at upgrading their left tackle situation as Jedrick Wills has failed to take a step in year four.

According to The OBR’s Brad Stainbrook, this is a move the Browns are already expected to look into as well. The problem? There are not a plethora of good offensive tackles just hanging out on the market. The Browns will likely have to pursue a current starting veteran on another team, and that will cost them valuable assets to do.

Sifting through who could be on their shortlist was a task as well, as the list is already short. Regardless, here are five names pulled that fit the bill from a financial and logical perspective if the Browns are looking to go out and find an upgrade to their current left tackle in Wills.

All financial figures were pulled from Over the Cap

Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 5 win over Packers

Raiders Ballers & Busters in win over Packers

It was another nail-biter for the Raiders Monday Night, but this time they came out on top, finishing with a 17-13 win over the visiting Packers.

Just like the Raiders first win of the season, it was a low-scoring affair. This one featured four turnovers, with three of them coming via interceptions by the Raiders.

The Packers struck first with a long drive to go up 3-0 in the first quarter. Come the second quarter, the Raiders put together a hard-fought drive to go ahead 7-3 and added a field goal off their first takeaway to take a 10-3 lead at the half.

The Packers took one back early in the third quarter and took advantage of the short field to tie it up at 10-10. Then they got a huge 77-yard reception from Christian Watson, but couldn’t finish it off and went up 13-10 on a short field goal.

The goal-line stand by the Raiders defense inspired the Raiders offense and they put together their best drive of the game to go up 17-13. And that would prove to be the final score.

DE Maxx Crosby

Earning Defensive Player of the Week was a pretty good sign that Crosby was the Top Baller for the Raiders in this game.

Several drives he stopped almost single-handedly. He got a pressure that led to a run stuff on the first drive that ended a play later with a punt. Early in the second quarter, the Packers had a four-play drive, with Crosby making a run stop for a loss and a pressure that led to a two-yard catch.

Later in the second quarter, with the Raiders just having taken a 10-3 lead, he had another run stop for a loss and another pressure that led to an incompletion to force a three-and-out and give the Raiders another shot at scoring before the half. Then, just for good measure, he got one more pressure on the final play of the second quarter.

The Raiders came back to take the lead on the first play of the fourth quarter. And Crosby set out to keep it. The ensuing Packers drive made it to the Vegas 40-yard-line. Then Crosby broke through for a sack to back them up to the 47. In their attempt to get that yardage back, Jordan Love threw his second interception.

A quick three-and-out for the Raiders offense and Crosby and Co. were back on the field. No problem, Crosby returned the favor, getting pressure on a screen attempt to force an incompletion and laying a hit on Jordan Love that led to another incompletion.

LB Robert Spillane, CB Marcus Peters, CB Amik Robertson

The turnover crew. And for once, that’s a good thing for the Raiders.

Spillane got things started, when he read Jordan Love’s eyes on a pass in the second quarter, picking it off and returning it to the seven-yard-line. The Raiders offense was unable to do anything with it and settled for a field goal to go up 10-3.

Spillane got another one, this time off a pass breakup that was tipped in the air by Peters. It stopped a drive that had moved into Vegas territory as the Packers looked to either pull to within a point or take the lead.

Peters’s big day started before that, however, when he made a touchdown saving tackle off a 77-yard catch by Christian Watson. Peters was called for a horsecollar, but who cares. He gave the Raiders’ defense a chance and they held the line to keep the Packers out of the end zone.

Robertson was the one who gave up that 77-yard catch to Watson, but he got the last laugh when the 5-9 cornerback leapt high above the 6-4 receiver to make the game-sealing interception.

WR Jakobi Meyers

While the Packers made a point to try and take their former teammate Davante Adams out of the game, Meyers was the beneficiary.

On the Raiders’ first scoring drive, he had a ten-yard catch on third and five and the touchdown catch from nine yards out. He would help put them in scoring range again just before the half with an 18-yard sliding grab on third and ten, followed by a 16-yard catch. Unfortunately Daniel Carlson’s 53-yard field goal was blocked.

The team’s final scoring drive was kept alive with an eight-yard catch by Meyers on third and four. After that, the Raiders finally managed to get Adams involved and went for their second touchdown.

P AJ Cole

His first punt was a beauty that went 55 yards and bounced out of bounds at the seven-yard-line. His next punt was fair caught at the ten-yard-line. His third punt went 53 yards with a two-yard return to the 17. His final punt was also stopped at the 17-yard-line, which was the best field position the Packers had off of any of his punts in the game.

RB Josh Jacobs

Jacobs put up 89 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown. A good portion of that came on two drives late in the game. He led off a drive late in the third quarter with a 24-yard run that began with a wicked dead leg fake out that left Jaire Alexander reaching at air. He added a six-yard run on the next play and would end up finishing off the drive with a touchdown run from two yards out.

His best play early on wasn’t even with him touching the ball. In fourth and one from the 16-yard-line, the Raiders ran a sweep with DeAndre Carter that was converted because Jacobs laid a big time block. They punched it in for the touchdown two plays later.

Late in the game, when they needed him most, he got the ball on six of seven plays for 29 yards of offense and put the Raiders in scoring range. But Carlson’s 52-yard field goal clanked off the right upright.

He had 63 yards of offense on those two drives alone, first to take the lead, and then to try and run clock and extend it.

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Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 4 loss to Chargers

Raiders Week 4 Ballers & Busters

It was a third straight loss for the Raiders in a game that most of the way didn’t even look close. Though the Raiders were able to make it interesting late, pulling one play away from a potential tie — they could not get over the hump and watched another one slip by them.

Ballers

DE Maxx Crosby

Crosby didn’t get the headlines because of Khalil Mack’s insane six-sack day, but the man who would eventually replace Mack with the Raiders had a good day as well. Crosby put up two sacks of his own and even led the Raiders in tackles.

RB Josh Jacobs

Easily his best game of the season. Jacobs led the team with eight catches for 81 yards for a total of 139 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown.

WR Davante Adams

He and Aidan O’Connell got off to a slow start in this one, but as the game went on, they got more acquainted. In the end, Adams nearly dragged the Raiders kicking and screaming back from the depth. Five of his eight catches came on the Raiders’ final two drives, including a 19-yard catch on fourth and ten that put them in first and goal at the three. O’Connell threw an interception on the next play.

S Tre’von Moehrig

Speaking of interceptions, the Raiders got their first of the season in this game. Moehrig had two chances at picking off a Justin Herbert pass. The first one was in the end zone and he got both hands on it, but was bumped in the air by the receiver and was unable to come up with it. But the next time he got a shot at it, he made the catch.

Unfortunately, a penalty on the return would make it the equivalent of a fair catch on a punt, but that wasn’t his fault. Had his return stood, he would’ve put the Raiders in great field position.

DT John Jenkins, DT Bilal Nichols

It was good to see a couple of the Raiders’ interior linemen do some good work. Jenkins tied for second on the team in tackles, many of which were for a loss or little to no gain. He also batted a pass down at the line. Nichols held up at the line to make the stop on two separate QB sneak attempts. His tackle on Justin Herbert on a scramble just short of the sticks set up a fourth and one stop and gave the Raiders’ offense one more chance to tie it.

P AJ Cole

Cole averaged 53.8 yards per punt on five punts. This included a 61-yard punt and a 70-yard punt that was downed at the five-yard-line.

FB Jakob Johnson

Johnson was laying blocks much like we saw a lot of last season, opening some sizable holes for Josh Jacobs to run through. This included a block downfield on a Jacobs catch, allowing him to go for 21 yards on third and 18. That set up a field goal to pull to within two scores.

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Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 3 loss to Steelers

Raiders Ballers & Busters vs Steelers

The home opener began with festivities, with the family of Ken Stabler receiving his Hall of Fame Ring of Excellence during pregame. And the game started with some defense on both sides that was reminiscent of those 70s rivalries.

The Steelers were stopped for a three-and-out on their first two possessions and the Raiders were stopped for a three-and-out in between.

Then the Raiders offense put on a nice-looking drive that would have made Stabler and Company proud to go up 7-0 on their old rival Steelers.

But the Steelers answered quickly on a play in which Calvin Austin III looked like Cliff Branch, going 72 yards for the touchdown.

From there, it was a whole lot of Steelers and not enough Raiders. Even still, we will start, as we often do, with the Ballers.

Ballers

WR Davante Adams

Adams was open a lot in this game and even when he wasn’t, Jimmy Garoppolo was looking for him. The result was 13 catches for 172 yards and both of the Raiders’ touchdowns.

The first pass of the game went to Adams for five yards. Then he began the next drive with catches for nine and 19 yards and finished it off with a 32-yard touchdown catch.

Four times in the second and third quarter, Adams made catches to convert on third and and get the Raiders Pittsburgh territory. The first two drives ended in an interception, while the third ended with a turnover on downs.

Finally, in the fourth quarter, his efforts paid off. He started the drive with a 26-yard catch and finished it with a touchdown on third and goal from the one.

Adams had a 12-yard catch on the Raiders’ last drive, but when the chips were down and he should’ve been given a shot to catch the potential game-tying score, the Raiders settled for a field goal instead.

DE Maxx Crosby

The two Super Stars on this team shined as bright as ever Sunday night. You just kind of wish they didn’t have to so often do it on their own. Crosby ended three of the Steelers’ six first-half possessions, first with a pressure to force an incompletion, then by getting the sack, and then with a run stop and another pressure to force an incompletion.

Unfortunately, the Steelers also scored on three of those six possessions, including one thanks in part to Crosby not keeping his cool and drawing a personal foul penalty for pulling a player off the pile.

Crosby did his best to wreck the Steelers’ first drive of the third quarter with a QB hit resulting in an incompletion, a run stuff, and forcing Kenny Pickett to throw the ball away on third down. They would still manage to add three points on a 57-yard field goal, though.

Not surprisingly, Crosby would lead the team with two QB hits and had the Raiders’ only sack in the game.

CB Nate Hobbs

Hobbs led the team with two pass breakups and tied for third in tackles. Both of his pass breakups came on third down. The first held the Steelers to a field goal early in the second quarter and the second came after the Raiders pulled the game to within eight to force a three-and-out when the Raiders desperately needed it.

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Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 2 loss to Bills

Raiders Week 2 Ballers & Busters

Safe to say this is one the Raiders would like to put behind them. But hopefully not before they try and learn from it. If there is anything to learn other than that they just can’t hang with a team like the Bills.

Things looked promising on the opening drive for the Raiders, just as they did in the opener in Denver. But it didn’t last long. A 7-0 lead in the first three minutes was a 21-10 deficit at the half and ended with a 38-10 demolition.

It’s hard to pinpoint much of anything that was actually working for the Raiders. Which should be pretty clear in this weeks Busters. But before we get to those details, let’s get the few Ballers out of the way.

Ballers

WR Davante Adams

As if often the case, Adams is a rare bright light in the darkness. He made a 16-yard back shoulder grab to convert the first third down of the game and then ended the opening drive by taking a screen pass 17 yards to the house.

The other scoring drive for the Raiders, Adams caught a 19-yard pass on third and 11 and later in the drive put the team in scoring range by breaking off his route and getting behind the DB to make a 21-yard catch.

He finished with six catches for 84 yards and a touchdown.

T Kolton Miller

He kept Garoppolo’s blind side protected all day and on the Adams touchdown screen, he got out wide to make the block.

S Marcus Epps

Epps did his best to stop to the Bills from scoring in the first quarter. He broke on a pass in the flat to stop it for a loss and two plays later made the stop on third down to bring up fourth and one. But as happened most of the day, the Bills converted it and went on to score anyway.

The one time in the game the Raiders were actually able to stop the Bills  on fourth and short, Epps set it up by making the stop on a Josh Allen scramble at the goal line.

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