2018 NFL Draft: Grading every first-round pick after rookie year

15. Kolton Miller, OT, Oakland Raiders

2018 Stats: N/A

It was a rough first year in the NFL for Kolton Miller, who initially looked like he was going to take the league by storm as the Oakland Raiders’ starting left tackle. Displacing Donald Penn as the starter could only mean good things were to come, right?

Well, not so much. In fact, you could make case that Miller was one of the worst starting tackles throughout the NFL in 2018. While it would be unfair to say that considering the injuries he battled through, the fact remains that he struggled mightily with making the jump from UCLA to the pros.

Here’s more from Pro Football Focus to paint a clearer picture:

"Miller allowed 65 total pressures in pass protection on the year, 22 more than any other rookie offensive lineman and one fewer than the NFL’s leader in pressures allowed (Houston Texans’ Julie’n Davenport). His 93.2 pass-blocking efficiency ranked 67th among the 69 offensive tackles with 250-plus pass-blocking snaps in 2018, which was largely pulled down by the league-high 16 sacks that he allowed."

Wow. So he led the league in sacks allowed, led all rookies in pressures allowed and was among the NFL’s most inefficient blockers. And yet, most of his struggles came while playing through injury, which earns him a sliver of slack.

Miller still gets a C- for what has a largely forgettable rookie season. The hope here is that he can return healthy in 2019 and provide much more stability for the Raiders on the blindside.

Grade: C-