The Oakland Raiders made quite the investment on Kolton Miller last year and they are hoping for some vindication in the 2019 NFL season.
The Raiders selected Miller with the 15th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft and it was not long before he had established himself as the starter at left tackle. Unfortunately, he had a rough time finding his footing alongside this makeshift offensive line in Oakland.
Oakland’s front office has since ushered in some significant changes this offseason. Regardless, Miller’s expectations are as high as ever going into the 2019 campaign.
According to Kyle Martin of the team’s official website, Miller feels much more comfortable in Year 2:
“Oh, way better,” he said about how comfortable he is now versus last year. “I’m seeing the rookies struggle a little bit now and it kind of brings me back to last year, but yeah the game has slowed down a lot for sure.”
Miller added that the experience has helped smoothen the transition this time around.
“I think it’s just game experience,” he said when asked about the biggest benefit from last year. “Just having that experience underneath your belt, playing all those snaps, even with injury, I think it helped me tremendously.”
It is encouraging to see that Miller seems to be much more optimistic about his skill set this season as opposed to last year. He will need all the confidence he can get as the Raiders look to enjoy a potential resurgence on offense in 2019.
Shoring up the protection for quarterback Derek Carr had become somewhat of a point of emphasis this offseason and they managed to do just that with the addition of Trent Brown. Despite starting his career at right tackle, Brown had emerged as a bonafide, blind-side blocker with the New England Patriots and the Raiders rewarded him with a four-year, $66 million contract with $36.75 million guaranteed.
As a result, there had been plenty of speculation regarding where Miller would play after making Brown the highest-paid offensive lineman in the league. Although the former had struggled to hold his own as a rookie, head coach Jon Gruden made it clear that he would remain at left tackle.
The decision has since raised plenty of questions regarding whether or not Gruden is making the right choice. Regardless, it is safe to say that the Raiders have plenty of confidence that Miller will be able to get the job done moving forward.
