Silver And Black Pride
Diving into the sixth-round pick’s game
It took until the sixth round and the 217th pick for the Las Vegas Raiders to take a quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft, but the Raiders found a good one in North Dakota State’s Cam Miller.
Miller was dominant against FCS-level competition last season, completing 72.9 percent of his passes for 3,251 yards and 33 touchdowns to just four interceptions, earning an elite 90.8 passing grade from Pro Football Focus. Additionally, he ran for another 734 yards and 12 scores to earn a 77.8 PFF grade as a runner.
The former Bison combines good mechanics to be a technically sound passer and impressive athleticism to make plays with his legs, worthy of a deeper look into his game and seeing what he can bring to the Raiders’ quarterback room.
This first clip is a simple five-yard gain, but the process is impressive from Miller. What stands out the most about his mechanics is that his feet are consistently tied to his eyes as he works his progressions. The end zone view above does a great job of showing that.
So, while nothing is open on the front side of the play and Miller works to the final read, his front foot is pointed at the target to help deliver an accurate throw as the pocket collapses and the pressure starts to come.
On top of that, he throws with great timing by letting the ball go before the receiver is out of the break and beats tight coverage for the third-down conversion.
Building on that, the North Dakota State product is good at reading the field and throws with anticipation.
South Dakota State is showing a two-high coverage pre-snap here, but the safety at the top of the screen rolls to the middle of the field for the Cover 1, or single-high man coverage look, post-snap. Once Miller sees the safety rotation, he knows he has a one-on-one matchup on the single-receiver side of the formation.
Watch when he lets the ball go. The wideout is still even with the cornerback, but Miller throws with anticipation, trusting that his guy can win. On top of that, he drops the ball in the bucket to beat tight coverage and create an explosive play to put the offense in scoring position.
Miller doesn’t have the strongest arm, but he’s consistently on time with his throws to occasionally hit on these deep shots and force defenses to honor them.
We’ll get another example of the quarterback’s great timing as he hits a window in zone coverage.
Colorado is playing Cover 3, which means the dig route is open if Miller can fit the ball between the curl-to-flat (No. 24) and hook-to-curl (No. 43) defenders. Especially with No. 24 playing a little shallow in his zone, Miller makes the correct read and throws the ball right as the receiver gets into his break to beat the coverage.
Additionally, he’s facing pressure and takes a big hit right...
