Nick Miller Took One of Johnny Lee-Higgins’ Jobs, Can He Take the Other?

Many Oakland Raiders fans have been waiting over a year to see what Nick Miller has to offer. Miller, who played college ball at Southern Utah, was signed by the Raiders as an undrafted free agent prior to the 2009 season.

However, due to an injury in the preseason, the Raiders decided to put Miller on the injured reserve list for the 2009 season. This was a surprising decision; not often is an undrafted free agent deemed valuable enough to be placed on the injured reserve list. By doing this, the Raiders were essentially saying that they were worried that if they didn't, Miller was going to be signed by another team.

Regardless of the fact that he had never played a real down of football in the NFL, the Raiders were willing to wait an entire year for him to heal in order to give him another shot. We saw the Raiders do this with Michael Bush, but Bush was once considered an early first-round pick before suffering an injury his senior year and the Raiders knew he might miss much of his rookie year when they drafted him.

Raiders fans were given their first glimpse of what the coaching staff had seen in Miller this preseason. Miller impressed both in the return game and at the wide receiver position, but despite his performance, he did not even see the field during the first four games of the season.

Not only did Miller not play, he found himself starting the season buried in the depth chart at the position he was signed to compete for: kick returner. Both Yamon Figurs and Johnny Lee-Higgins found themselves ahead of Miller for the punt return position.

This however, did not faze Miller, he is used to being the underdog. Miller started his collegiate career at Scottsdale Community College before transferring to Southern Utah. At Southern Utah, Miller overcame the stigma of playing for a small school and impressed enough to be signed to an NFL roster.

On Sunday against the San Diego Chargers, Miller...

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