One of the New Orleans Saints' most surprising decisions against the Atlanta Falcons was Christen Miller being one of the inactive players. Miller hasn't played in the previous two weeks because of a toe injury. The second round pick had no injury designation, however, after being a full participant in Saturday's practice, making Miller a healthy scratch.
Making Miller a healthy scratch is a head scratching decision because of his draft value, talent on the roster, reps needed and most importantly style of play for the matchup against the Falcons. There's a lot of reasons that Miller should have been on the field, and the list greatly outweighs the reasons he shouldn't play.
The only question is why? It's hard to imagine what could have went into the decision to sit Miller, but the Saints weren't better for it. He wouldn't have changed the game, but it wouldn't have been worse, plus there would have been the perk of evaluation.
No excuse for Saints not using Christen Miller
Let's just start with the obvious. A top-50 pick being inactive for a game four weeks into his rookie campaign is strange when the player is healthy. It's hard to say the Saints were being cautious with Miller because he had no injury designation going into the week. That suggests the team felt confident in his health.
Conventional wisdom would say if it isn't health then it's performance keeping him off the field. However, Miller only played 25 snaps in Week 1, and that's not enough snaps to write him off. Matter of fact, the lack of reps he's seen this season because of the toe injury is another reason to get him on the field.
Miller needs time to develop, but that development has to consist of live action snaps. Who is he taking snaps away from that the Saints can't afford to be without?
The interior defensive line has been weak, which is why the Saints drafted Miller in the first place. It's continued to be weak all year, and they got absolutely bullied against the Falcons. That's not new either.
The Saints have been weak at the point of attack all season, and for some reason they thought it was wise to go against a Bijan Robinson led rushing attack without the interior defensive lineman they selected in the second round this year.
With Kaden Elliss out due to injury, Miller was the player identified to give the run defense a small boost. It was the trait that was supposed to translate the quickest from Georgia and is the thing missing from the Saints defense currently, so it should be a perfect match in theory. If it isn't, then we should at least see it not work.
Miller showed strength at the point of attack in preseason, and while preseason and regular season are different, when the defensive line is struggling as a whole, this was the moment to see what Miller could provide.
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