SMU DL Miller standing on business following Pro Day

When Jordan Miller made the decision to come to SMU last offseason he did so with one thing in mind, do enough to show he could play in the NFL.

That’s exactly what he did. He showed it again at the Shrine Bowl and during Monday’s SMU Pro Day.

“It felt good. I feel real good about my Pro Day,” Miller said. “I came in here with high expectations and I hit some of those benchmarks that I wanted. I was looking to knock that 30-mark on the bench. Got close, couldn’t crack it, it was still a good number though. I ran, I went through my pre-workout warmup. I knew if I busted a sweat in my warmup, everything was going to go good and that’s exactly what happened. I felt solid all the way around.”

Miller proved to be what the SMU defense needed, filling things up in the middle of the line. Of his 26 tackles, 12 were solo and he had four for loss including half a sack. Miller added a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry.

A lot of what Miller did, though, didn’t show up on a stat sheet. He took on multiple offensive linemen, freeing things up for his fellow defensive linemen and the linebackers while also disrupting the pocket for the pass rushers.

“I feel like I had a solid season to lead up to the NFL. I’ve got to fine tune some things,” Miller said. “I’ve already talked to some of the coaches about the things I’ve got to fine tune, things I’ve got to work on, but it’s not anything major like, ‘If you don’t do this you’re not going to make it.’ It’s like those things that will set me above. I feel pretty solid going into the league.”

It resulted in an invitation to the Shrine Bowl. It was another opportunity for Miller to put his name out there and he wasn’t going to waste that chance.

“I was excited. When I got the Shrine Bowl invite I was like, ‘This is another chance to showcase what you can do.’ Not a lot of people get those all-star games and stuff like that, so I’m not going to take it for granted. Eerie day throughout the process, I treated it like a camp. It was like a bowl game setting, but I treated it like camp. I didn’t really go out or anything like that. I conversed throughout the hotel, but I treated it as a game week, so I didn’t eat crap – even though they had everything galore – I didn’t eat crazy stuff.

“When we got a chance to talk to some of the greats. Deion (Sanders) came in there, there was a lot of big names in there. I got a chance to connect with them and speak with them. I wasn’t shy. That’s the thing about the league, you’ve got to have connections and stuff like that. That was an early connection I could have and I made use of it.”

Two AFC West teams have been on Miller the most, led by the Denver Broncos with two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs showing interest along with some from the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Miller knows a lot of his appeal is his 6-foot-3 and 300-plus-pound frame and the ability to use it. He wants teams to know he is in this for the long haul.

“I’m bringing a stout body. I’m bringing somebody who’s going to stop the run and if you need somebody to pass rush, I’m going to pass rush. That’s how you make money in the league, sacks is racks, that’s money. Sacks are like touchdowns for us. As a big man inside, if you can get TFLs, TFLs are kind of like sacks, but sacks is money.

“I just want to be an influential person inside the league. I want to be an influential person inside the league, I don’t just want to be there. You can just be there and be a placeholder and they’ll be like, ‘What are you doing for our organization that’s separating you?’ And if you’re just sitting there soaking up the money you’re not going to last long. I want to make an impact.”

It’s a similar approach he took to coming to SMU for his final season out of the transfer portal last year. He didn’t want this stop to be the end.

“You’ve just got to let the transfers know, this is your bridge into the league,” Miller said. “You go to a team for a year, you don’t know where you’re going to land at. I transferred here for a year and made use. I blew up for a year and it’s kickstarted me on my journey to the NFL. If you would have asked me a year ago where I would have been at Miami, if I was going to make it to the league, I wouldn’t have a solid answer for you. I would have been like, ‘I know I can make it, but I don’t have too much film or stuff like that to back it up.’ When I came here they gave me that chance to put my name in the spotlight, it really opened doors for me.”

That is what the goal should be, Miller believes, when it comes to choosing a school out of high school or the transfer portal. The focus should be finding a place to play where there is a path to the NFL on the field, not about the money that can be collected through NIL.

“That whole NIL aspect, people are blowing their heads up thinking, ‘I’m going to come here and get paid like it’s a bridge into the league.’ No bro, you’re still in college,” Miller said. “You’re going to get something to help you out, but at the end of the day there’s a bigger purpose, you’re trying to get to the league to get the big money. You don’t want to go to college for a year and splurge like, ‘I got this, I got all that,’ but what stats do you have at the end of the day? I just feel like if you keep your head down and work and stay on the same path as you had before you transferred, you’re going to be straight.”