Starting left tackle Kolton Miller hasn’t reported to the Las Vegas Raiders’ voluntary offseason program as he seeks a contract extension, according to a team source. Miller is going into the final year of a three-year contract extension he signed in 2021.
Miller is set to make a salary of a little over $12.2 million in 2025, but none of that money is guaranteed. His total cash earnings of $12,305,998 would rank just 15th among NFL left tackles.
The Raiders have over $42.2 million in cap space, according to Over the Cap, so they have the room to extend Miller if they wish. Whether they’ll actually do so, however, is yet to be determined.
“We always look at that,” general manager John Spytek said last month when asked about potentially extending Miller. “With one year left, you kind of got to go through it and try to decide on, ‘How do we want to build this team?’ And you realize — and you see it every year — once guys get to their end of their deal, it gets more expensive. But if you can find guys that want to do a deal and it makes sense, then you do it.
“Sometimes the best thing is for them to go to free agency, too, so they can see what their true value is. And maybe they get it, maybe they don’t. I take it case by case. Unless you’re like one of the top three or four guys at your position in the NFL, I mean, how do we make sense of this and the kind of deal that we’re going to have to do to keep you here?”
Spytek and coach Pete Carroll are both entering Year 1 on the job. While it’s common for new regimes to take their time handing out big money extensions to players on the rosters they inherit, they showed they’re willing to do so when they gave defensive end Maxx Crosby a three-year, $106.5 million extension earlier this offseason.
Of course, Crosby is a different caliber player than Miller, so it’s far from an exact comparison. Miller suffered a shoulder injury in 2023 that ultimately required offseason surgery. And while he was healthy enough to start in Week 1 in 2024, he wasn’t himself.
Miller allowed eight sacks (tied for eighth among offensive linemen), which were the most he’s given up in a single season since his rookie year in 2018, and wasn’t as effective as a run blocker. By the end of the season, however, Miller began to return to form. He allowed just two sacks after the Raiders’ Week 10 bye and also stepped it up in the run game.
While he isn’t elite, Miller is a quality starting left tackle who’ll turn 30 in September. In the NFL, those players tend to get paid.
The Raiders began phase one of their voluntary offseason program, which consists of meetings, strength and conditioning and physical rehab, on April 8. Players aren’t required to report until mandatory minicamp on June 10-12. If Miller were to miss that, he would be subject to fines.
It’ll be interesting to see whether the uncertainty of his status drags into the start of the 2025 NFL Draft next Thursday. If it does, that could potentially impact the Raiders’ plans.
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