Round 4, Pick 138: Shareef Miller, Defensive end, Penn State
The Eagles continued a red-hot NFL Draft by selecting Penn State’s Shareef Miller in the fourth round. The defensive end became the second PSU alum to be selected by the team, joining running back Miles Sanders.
At 6’5″ and 260 lbs, Miller has the size that defenses covet in their edge-rushers and during his time at Penn State, Miller grew into one of the team’s biggest leaders. The attention given to him last year following a strong breakout enabled Yetur Gross-Matos to explode onto the scene, but that didn’t stop him from having success of his own. 15 tackles for a loss and 7.5 sacks headlined another strong season.
A small concern is that Miller is very one dimensional. He doesn’t have a vast array of pass-rushing moves and plays at one speed once his impressive first step and burst is behind him. He’s quick, has an impressive ability to bend and really drive lineman around the arc, but what he has in finesse, he’s missing in those technical intricacies that have seen this class receive such astonishing praise.
Miller will be a great compliment to an Eagles defensive end group that just needs to build from the bottom of the depth chart out, and would grant him the opportunity to hone his craft during his first few years in the league.
This can also be taken as a pretty firm indication that Chris Long won’t be coming back in 2019. Long told the Eagles ‘to plan as if I won’t be there’…and it appears as if they’ve done just that. It’s sad to see, but the Eagles have found some great value in the fourth-round, adding a penetrative defensive end who can learn under Chris Wilson.
