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Tonight - just two days ahead of the deadline - we learned that offensive tackle Pat Miller is declaring for the NFL Draft. That seems... unwise.
I didn't even know Pat Miller submitted paperwork to discover his draft status. Either he did it and no one knew about it, or whomever does the ratings gave him one anyway, per this tweet:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="http://t.co/9Sck8aG2xY">http://t.co/9Sck8aG2xY</a> ranked Patrick Miller No. 43 OT in 2016 class, projects 26 OT to be drafted this year. <a href="http://t.co/sXnNpZKe7G">http://t.co/sXnNpZKe7G</a></p>— James Crepea (@JamesCrepea) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesCrepea/status/555186432953028609">January 14, 2015</a></blockquote>
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That does not sound like his chances of getting drafted are very high.
Look, I know the offensive line situation is going to be stacked next season. I know Auburn has a lot of talent returning and could even bring in the #1 player in the 2015 recruiting class who is an offensive tackle. But I still didn't expect this to happen.
A few days ago I projected Auburn's offensive line to be Coleman, Young, Golson, Kozan, Smith. It's starting to look like I was correct about that. This is even before you consider that Davonte Danzey was getting reps ahead of Miller even after Miller returned from his injury last season for a while. The competition was going to be stiff, but there were still others telling me in the comments that they thought Miller would be a starter on the line next season, too.
I'm surprised at this move. Transfer? Maybe. He still has a redshirt season due to playing as a true freshman at Auburn (where he was a last-second early entry when things didn't work out with LSU - his original destination). Miller could have sat out next season and started somewhere else the year after if he was worried about playing time.
We wish Pat Miller the best of luck, though. I have a bad feeling that this will not turn out well for him, but I really hope that's not the case. Good luck, Pat, and War Eagle. Thanks for everything you did while you were here at Auburn.