Film room: Miller, a technically sound athletic passer

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 after letting it rip, showing off some toughness in the pocket. Even more impressively, this came late in the game with the Bison down five during their two-minute drive to add an element of clutch to this rep.

This next clip is similar to the last one in that Miller makes a good read and throw to beat zone coverage.

The Buffaloes are in Cover 2 while the Bison have the tight end run a drag route and the receiver at the bottom of the screen outside release to widen the corner and create space on the post route. With the tight end occupying the linebacker in the middle of the field, the safety playing deep and the corner widened, the quarterback knows the post route will be open.

So, Miller lets it rip and hits the receiver to turn second and long into a first down in the red zone.

As mentioned above, the former Bison can also make plays with his feet. But what’s impressive about him in this area is that he isn’t someone who just takes off and runs; he’s more calculated with these opportunities.

Colorado blitzes from a Cover 1 look, meaning they’re in man coverage and the middle of the field is wide open. The secondary does a good job, as all of the primary receivers are covered. Also, the blitz is effective with the quarterback getting flushed out of the pocket.

Now, an argument could be made that Miller should check the ball down to the tight end since the tight end is open in the flat. However, since the defense is in man coverage and the defensive backs are following their receivers to the other side of the field, Miller pulls the ball down and runs. He has enough speed to go untouched for the 20-yard score.

That’s a smart decision paired with the athleticism to capitalize.

We’ll wrap up with a designed quarterback run as North Dakota State runs lead zone.

Miller does a good job of setting up the running back/lead blocker’s block by stemming inside or attacking downhill initially. That gets the defender to attack the back with inside leverage and opens up the outside rushing line. Then, the quarterback shows decent burst to bounce outside a create a 25-yard gain on the ground.

On top of that, he takes a big hit on the sideline, drawing a flag and showing some toughness by getting up and not missing the next play.

Overall, Miller will likely be a career backup, which is perfectly fine for a sixth-round pick. As mentioned above, he doesn’t have a strong arm for NFL standards to constantly push the ball down the field, and he lacks NFL size at just under 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds.

However, the North Dakota State product has plenty of traits to be a reliable passer in an emergency and has the rushing skills to be a good fit in Chip Kelly’s offense. Especially with the former, it’s easy to see why Tom Brady likes Miller.