After a 4-13, last-place season in 2024, the Las Vegas Raiders have had a busy offseason, replacing general manager Tom Telesco and head coach Antonio Pierce with John Spytek and Pete Carroll, respectively.
Las Vegas has also taken some strides to upgrade their roster, including trading for Geno Smith from the Seattle Seahawks and signing guard Alex Cappa, safety Jeremy Chinn, running back Raheem Mostert, defensive lineman Leki Fotu, cornerback Eric Stokes, tight end Ian Thomas, safety Lonnie Johnson Jr., linebacker Elandon Roberts and linebacker Devin White.
Unfortunately, the Raiders are at a bit of a crossroads with one of their key offensive pieces heading into 2025, as offensive tackle Kolten Miller is not participating in this phase of the team's offseason program as he looks for an extension (per ESPN's Jeremy Fowler).
With that news, it's only natural to wonder if Las Vegas will consider moving on from Miller and using their first-round pick (No. 6 overall) in the upcoming draft to take a young tackle.
On Wednesday, Last Word on Sports' David Latham identified a few teams that Miller could land with in a trade this offseason, and he listed the New England Patriots as one of the top fits.
Last season, the Patriots made moves to address their offensive line, drafting guard Layden Robinson and tackle Caedan Wallace and signing Chukwuma Okorafor. However, none of them panned out the way they wanted, and they allowed their quarterbacks to take sacks on 8.95% of their dropbacks, the seventh-highest rate in the NFL.
Left tackle was particularly hard to watch with Okorafor getting benched during the season opener and leaving the team after Week 1, Wallace suffering a serious injury that cost him most of the year and Vederian Lowe just struggling to compete against most professional edge rushers.
While the Patriots have signed Morgan Moses to play right tackle, they've yet to do anything to address the role of protecting Drake Maye's blind side.
Miller could be the perfect fit. The 29-year-old former first-round pick (No. 15 overall in 2018 out of UCLA) has started 107 out of 116 possible games in his seven seasons in the NFL. Pro Football Focus gave him an 80.6 overall grade for his performance, ranking him 14th out of 141 qualified NFL offensive tackles in 2024. He also earned an 82.2 pass-blocking grade (11th) and a 71.7 run-blocking grade (30th).
New England still has plenty of money to spend, and some intriguing draft capital that they could use as trade chips. They could trade for Miller, give him a long-term extension and use their first-round pick on another position of need. That could be the best move to get the Patriots back to their days of competing.
