Philadelphia Eagles: Does Shareef Miller have a role in 2020?

[UK_EaglesFan89]

Philadelphia Eagles: Does Shareef Miller have a role in 2020?

 

Where does Shareef Miller fit with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2020?

Shareef Miller was the Philadelphia Eagles‘ forgotten man in 2019.

Despite being selected with the final pick in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft, Miller was a healthy scratch for all but one of the team’s 16 games in 2019, with his lone appearance coming in Week 8 against the Buffalo Bills, where he logged two special teams snaps.

On the one hand, I guess it’s a positive that every game Miller has appeared in as a pro has been an Eagles victory, but then again, you’d expect a little more production from a fourth-round pick, right? Especially when the Eagles’ defensive end rotation was far from formidable.

So, in theory, after losing Vinny Curry in free agency – for the time being – and only replacing him with Stanford seventh-round pick – and noted Connor Barwin favorite – Casey Toohill, one would assume Miller has to be in line for a bigger role with the team when the season opens up this fall, right?

Maybe not.

You see, besides those ever-present rumors about Jadeveon Clowney making amends with the fine people of South Philly, rumors that will seemingly persist until he eventually signs (likely elsewhere) at some point in the not-too-distant future, it now appears ex-Minnesota Vikings edge rusher Everson Griffen is teasing his desire to join Jim Schwartz’s defensive end rotation, persumably in the Chris Long-role (more on that here).

In theory, could these moves be unrelated? Could the Eagles add Griffin and still give meaningful snaps to Miller? I guess anything is possible but historically speaking, teams don’t add over-30-year-old stopgaps on one-year deals this late into free agency if they are happy with their current depth.

By the same logic, if the Eagles really felt confident in their depth on the offensive line, they probably wouldn’t have needed to re-sign Jason Peters to play guard for the first time since, well, since ever, right? I like Matt Pryor as much as the next guy, but even I’m not going to suggest giving him the first nod at guard was a particularly safe strategy.

 

Maybe all of this speculation about adding an external, veteran option is just that, speculation. Maybe the Eagles will enter 2020 with Brandon Graham and Derek Barnett as starters and some combination of Miller, Josh Sweat, Daeshon Hall, Joe Ostman, Genard Avery, and 2020 seventh-round pick Casey Toohill filling out the remainder of the minutes, but even if that’s the case, where does Shareef fit into the equation? Does he even have a viable role?

Josh Sweat’s role is clear. He finished 2019 with the third-most defensive snaps of any defensive end on the roster, and shows some encouraging signs of life as a viable speedster coming off the edge. The same goes for Avery. While many scratched their heads over the decision to trade a fourth-round pick for his services, it’s clear his athleticism can help to impact the game both as a defensive end or a stand-up OLB lined up on the second level.

In 2019, Miller was outplayed by Daeshon Hall, a former third-round pick on his third team in as many years, and probably wouldn’t have even made the team if it wasn’t for his draft pedigree.

https://section215.com/2020/07/14/philadelphia-eagles-shareef-miller-2020/

As a fourth round pick I'm sure he'll get every opportunity to make the roster. But with a limited training camp it'll be difficult for him to get many opportunities to take. 

Mind you the DE position is up in the air on this team so he's got a good chance just on that basis. 

[time2rock]

For the record, I never liked the Miller pick (coming from a huge PSU fan).  But when looking at the list of draft picks taken after him no one really jumps out as one of those "really wish we would have taken him instead” players.  It just seemed to be a relatively weak draft class overall.  

Further, he was drafted knowing he’d be a work in progress.  I am kinda hoping he will get about 15-20% of the defensive snaps this year - that will help with his development.  Then hopefully in year 3 he can take a bigger leap.  That would somewhat mirror the path Sweat took.  

[PoconoDon]

He might rock the Casbah.

[jsb235]

For unknown reasons I looked through his twitter feed, and this kid is brimming with confidence.

You expect one or two "working hard for next year" tweets from NFL players, but this kid was somewhat relentless from almost the moment the season ended that he was going to make an impact next year.

FWIW, I look at DE this way. We have a really good one in Graham. And then we have Barnett, who isn't as good, and then Sweat, who is almost identical to Barnett, and then Miller, Hall and Avery, who are just as good as Sweat. So if we are happy putting Barnett out there, the sky wouldn't end up falling if we had to put anyone else on the depth chart in the game, since Barnett hasn't done anything to separate himself from the pack other than getting drafted in the first round.

[eggs]

Shareef miller will be better than sweat or avery - neither of which has shown anything in their time in the nfl. Shareef is a worker. 

[Diehardfan]

I forgot he was even on the team

[nipples]

On 7/16/2020 at 10:37 PM, eggs said:

Shareef miller will be better than sweat or avery - neither of which has shown anything in their time in the nfl. Shareef is a worker. 

Sweat looked solid in his limited opportunities last season. On a per snap basis, he had almost identical averages to Brandon Graham last year. 

[time2rock]

If Miller doesn’t have a role in year 2 it will be extremely disappointing.