Philadelphia Eagles rookie DE Shareef Miller struggling early on

Philadelphia Eagles fourth-round pick Shareef Miller still has plenty to work on during his first NFL training camp.

A few months ago, the Philadelphia Eagles made a local kid’s dream come true. In the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft, the Eagles made a call to Penn State defensive end, Shareef Miller. Although Miller played his college ball closer to the Pittsburgh area, he spent a large chunk of his life playing football in Philadelphia. Now, the lifelong Birds fan will get to play for them.

This Thursday, Miller will get put to the test at the NFL level for the first time. As the Eagles kick off their four-week preseason schedule, the fourth-round pick is sure to see some significant action against the Tennessee Titans. Hopefully, during that time, Miller can stand out much more than he has been at training camp — because so far his path to the top of the depth chart has been slightly difficult.

The Eagles needed a defensive end in the draft, after losing two of their own this offseason. It first started when they traded Michael Bennett to the New England Patriots to avoid giving him a pay raise. Then, longtime veteran Chris Long decided to call it a career, leaving the Eagles with another hole to fill on that side of the ball.

Fortunately, they had two second-year veterans on board who were ready to battle for partial snaps — but Miller wouldn’t be excluded from the battle if he was able to put some stellar progress on display. Unfortunatley, that hasn’t happened yet.

Miller’s going through growing pains

Being that Miller is a fourth-round pick, he’s in an interesting situation. By no means is he expected to be a breakout star in year one. And at the same time, he could struggle big time and will still most likely make the team unless somebody deeper on the depth chart ultimately beats him out, and it’s obvious to everybody.

Miller hasn’t been terrible at Eagles’ camp — but he hasn’t exactly stood out for good reasons either. According to The Inquirer’s Paul Domowitch, Miller is experiencing growing pains during his first NFL training camp. That’s not the worst-case scenario, as sometimes rookies are expected to struggle when they first get started.

Now that the Eagles got even thinner at the position now though, Miller will have to step up this preseason to at least prove himself as a worthy insurance option if the Eagles experience multiple injuries. With Joe Ostman now out of the picture, Miller now appears to be in a battle for fifth-string snaps.

The starters on the edges for the Eagles are Brandon Graham and Derek Barnett. Their backup would be Vinny Curry and Josh Sweat. Behind them, it’s a free-for-all for whoever wants it. Along with Miller, Daeshon Hall, and the newbie, Kasim Edebali are battling for a third-string spot on either side.

The hope would be that Miller eventually adjusts to the speed of the NFL and has a rather strong preseason in the next few weeks. As he will get plenty of real-time reps, there’s no question that Miller will have tons of opportunity to change the narrative from having growing pains to being a potential insurance policy for one of the backups.