– Coming off a knee injury (MCL sprain) suffered in the college football playoffs

– No official testing numbers available to complete a proper prospect profile

– Slightly skinny through lower body

– Upright running style can lead to extra punishment

– Was not used as a receiver quite as much as you would like to see in college

Scouting Notes: It was impossible to watch the TCU Horned Frogs play in 2022 and not take major notice of Kendre Miller. Miller got his opportunity to be featured in his junior season following former teammate Zach Evans’ departure to Ole Miss and took full advantage, parlaying his 1515 scrimmage yards and 17-TD campaign into an opportunity to declare early for the NFL draft. Miller is a creative runner who plays with maniacal, frenetic effort that looks like controlled chaos and is reminiscent of Kareem Hunt at Toledo. His balance and vision are elite and he will make a defense pay badly if the interior front is not solid in its run fits. We’ll likely never get any physical testing on Miller as he continues to rehab his knee injury suffered in the college football playoff semifinal versus Michigan. While we don’t have specifics about the exact nature of the injury outside of it being an “MCL sprain,” we do know that it couldn’t have been too bad, as Miller was questionable all week leading into the Georgia game and was said to even “test out” the knee in pre-game before making the decision along with TCU medical staff to sit out. Miller was top 12 out of 255 qualifiers per PFF in forced missed tackles during the 2023, and in all, they credit him with 109 forced missed tackles on 353 career carries, along with an excellent average of 3.8 yards after contact per attempt. He will not kill you with raw speed, but he’s also not a player who DBs can easily run down, even on technically sound pursuit angles due to his ability to navigate through traffic and accelerate into open space.

Fantasy Outlook: Miller is one of a few backs in the 2023 class with the requisite size and production profile to project as a potential bellcow/featured back/1A in a committee at the next level. The lack of major pass-catching production is a slight knock on his profile, but if you watch back the games, you will see that he certainly looks perfectly capable and comfortable as a catcher of dump-off balls and screens, even if the TCU offense did not have him running the same sort of routes we see out of backs in a system like Jimbo Fisher runs. In the right NFL situation, Miller could become a real fantasy asset, and as a 21-year-old rookie with such appealing size, flashy on-field play, and relatively little tread on the tires, there is little reason to think he should fall outside of the Top 5 RBs taken in early dynasty rookie drafts. We’ll pay attention to the draft capital Miller receives (we’d anticipate Day 2 barring more major injury concerns than expected); and of course, reports about the knee on its own should continue to be monitored. We are bullish on Miller to begin with, and good outcomes in these two aspects will cause us to become even moreso.