Browns Trade Pitch Nets Team One of NFL’s Top-5 Left Tackles

Getty Las Vegas Raiders left tackle Kolton Miller blocks San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa during an NFL game in January 2023.

The Cleveland Browns have a couple of weeks to sort out an offensive line that has been an unexpected issue through four games this season.

Cleveland’s interior is as good as it ever was, but a knee injury stole right tackle Jack Conklin for the season in the first half of the first game, and starting left Jedrick Wills Jr. has been among the worst players at his position in the entire league.

Garett Bolles of the Denver Broncos is a realistic option, though another possibility may exist in Las Vegas Raiders left tackle Kolton Miller.

A first-round draft pick (No. 11 overall), Miller is playing on a three-year, $54 million deal and is under contract through the 2025 season. Pro Football Focus also ranks Miller as the 5th-best tackle in the NFL through four games this season out of 71 players who have played enough snaps to qualify at the position.

Kolton Miller Could Become Available if Raiders Continue to Struggle

GettyOffensive tackle Kolton Miller of the Las Vegas Raiders walks off the field at halftime of an NFL game against the Buffalo Bills in October 2020.

Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is sidelined with a concussion and has a long history of serious injury. All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams is making noise about being unhappy in the desert, and fans are clamoring for head coach Josh McDaniels to be fired as the team is off to a 1-3 start after finishing 6-11 last year.

None of that bodes well for anything but a teardown, in which case Vegas could become major sellers ahead of the October 31 trade deadline — especially if the losing continues over the next month.

“This lends a hand to a possible rebuild and toward the search for more draft capital at the expense of currently high-paid players on the roster,” Cory Kinnan of Browns Wire wrote on Tuesday, October 3. “Like Bolles, however, the cost to acquire Miller would not be a cheap one for the Browns.”

High draft picks aren’t assets to be parted with lightly, but the Browns are all-in on winning over the next few years and there is no time left to hesitate. Cleveland owns both its second- and third-round picks in 2024 and can likely put together a package centered around one of those selections capable of procuring Miller, assuming the Raiders decide to put him on the block.

Miller has been highly durable over his six-year NFL tenure, appearing in and starting 83 of a possible 86 regular season games. While he has never made a Pro Bowl, Miller is an incredibly effective player based on PFF’s advanced metrics.

He has played 243 snaps at left tackle and 1 snap at tight end in 2023, allowing 2 sacks and incurring 1 penalty through four outings. He is well above-average as a run blocker and borderline elite as a pass-blocker, per PFF’s player grades.

Jedrick Wills Jr. Continues to Be Problem that Browns Must Solve

GettyOffensive tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. of the Cleveland Browns has played poorly in 2023.

Pro Bowler or not, what’s most important is that Miller is a vast upgrade over Wills who has made a mess of QB Deshaun Watson’s blindside all season long.

Wills has not only performed poorly — currently among the six worst tackles in the NFL, per PFF, while Miller is among the top five — but he is also playing with an obvious lack of effort that is costing Cleveland plus-plays and ending drives prematurely.

The Browns struggled with whether to pick up Wills’ $14.2 million player option for 2024, though the team ultimately decided to do so. That decision now looks clearly like a mistake, as Wills will carry a $14.6 million cap hit next season and would cost the team more to cut ($16 million) than to keep.

If Cleveland is serious about contending over the next two years, it must upgrade at left tackle. Should the Browns do so — perhaps by adding Miller who will carry cap hits of just $15.6 million in 2024 and 2025 — the only real choices with Wills are either to bench him or trade him.

Wills has minimal trade value at the moment, though he is a starting left tackle and a former first-round pick. Even if Cleveland can acquire a late Day-3 draft pick in return for Wills that will be worth it just to get off his contract.

A struggling offense somewhere in the NFL that has some cap space to burn and no serious playoff prospects over the next couple of seasons may be willing to take a flier on Wills in the hopes they it rebuild him, which would be the perfect scenario for the Browns.

That said, Cleveland doesn’t need to dump Wills’ contract this season in order to afford a player like Miller, as the Browns have nearly $34.5 million in available space as of Wednesday.