Pivotal season ahead for Raiders tackle Kolton Miller

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Thursday, June 11, 2020 | 2 a.m.

Want to hear a somewhat-alarming fact about the Raiders’ recent draft history? Since the fifth-year option rule was instituted in 2011, the team has not ended up exercising that option on any of its first-round selections.

The reason it’s only “somewhat alarming” and not “flat-out alarming” is that in two of those years, the Raiders did not have a first-round pick (2011 and 2012), and two of the other selections were used to take Khalil Mack (2014) and Amari Cooper (2015). So the actual evaluations haven’t been that bad.

But still, the fifth-year option rule was implemented as a way to give teams an extra year of control over their young, blue-chip players, and in the decade that rule has existed, the Las Vegas franchise hasn’t benefitted from it — at all.

The Raiders picked up the option on Mack and Cooper, but both were traded before their fifth year. D.J. Hayden, the team’s 2013 first-rounder, and Karl Joseph, the team’s 2016 first-rounder, were allowed to walk after playing out the first four years of their rookie deals. And 2017 pick Gareon Conley was traded to Houston in the middle of last season.

Next in line is left tackle Kolton Miller, who was chosen No. 15 overall in the 2018 draft. Miller struggled as a rookie in 2018 but settled in last year and put together a solid-ish season, playing all 16 games and allowing 7.0 sacks.

Pro Football Focus gave Miller an overall grade of 64.9 for the year, which ranked him 23^rd out of 37 tackles in the NFL.

Is that good enough for Las Vegas to pull the trigger on that fifth-year option? The decision doesn’t have to be made until after the 2020 season, so there is time for Miller to take another significant step forward before Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock have to make up their minds.

Continuity should help Miller this season, as the Raiders bring back right tackle Trent Brown, veteran guards Richie Incognito and Gabe Jackson and stud center Rodney Hudson. That group has logged a lot of snaps together, and an experienced quarterback like Derek Carr should make them look even better. It would take a disastrous season-long performance from Miller to derail what should be one of the league’s best offensive lines.

Miller still has the potential that he possessed in the lead-up to the 2018 draft. He’s huge (6-foot-7) and powerful, especially for a left tackle, and it shows in the run game, as he threw some devastating blocks to spring running back Josh Jacobs last year.

Miller’s pass-blocking is not as refined, and he’ll probably have to continue to progress in that area before the Raiders are willing to commit to him for a fifth year. It won’t be cheap — for players picked outside the top 10, the player’s salary for the option year is equal to the average of the third- through 25^th-highest paid players at his position. For a premium position like left tackle, that will cost the Raiders a significant chunk of cap space in 2022.

The team has already invested a lot of cash in its offensive line. The Raiders’ decision on Miller’s option will come down to how much he improves in 2020.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.