The 17 most valuable Arizona Wildcats football players of 2017: No. 8

Last entry of the week in our continuing countdown of the 17 most valuable Arizona Wildcats of 2017.

First, some quick reminders:

“Most valuable” does not necessarily mean “best.” Rather, we’re defining it as the contributions and traits that most influence winning football. They include talent, leadership and projected role and production.

Newcomers were not eligible for the list. Although many might become major contributors this year, especially on defense, their roles are just too difficult to predict in June.

NO. 8: DE-LB DEANDRE’ MILLER

Ht/Wt/Yr: 6-3, 236, redshirt senior

Comment: Few UA players have a wider range of potential outcomes this season than Miller. His value is predicated largely – if not exclusively – on his health.

That essentially makes Miller the Nick Wilson of the defense – the talented veteran who’s important to the team’s success but can’t seem to stay on the field. Except that Miller might have a higher upside than Wilson (No. 15 on our list) in 2017 because there isn’t as much direction competition for playing time at his position.

Arizona lists four other players at defensive end/linebacker – a long way of saying “Stud” – on its online roster. Freshman Jose Ramirez also played at that spot in spring. None is to rushing the passer as J.J. Taylor is to rushing the football.

In other words, barring a major leap from a youngster, Miller will get the majority of the snaps at Stud … if he’s available to play. It’s one of the biggest “ifs” of 2017 for the Wildcats.

Miller showed great promise last season before getting hurt. In the first three games of the season, he accumulated 13 tackles, two sacks and two additional tackles for losses. He had just five more stops of any sort the rest of the season.

Miller appeared in six more games but never was quite right after suffering a high ankle sprain against the Rainbow Warriors. I learned in my time covering USC that no injury is more debilitating for a pass rusher. It happened to future pro Nick Perry in August of 2010, and he wasn’t himself the entire season.

Unfortunately, the injury bug isn’t unfamiliar to Miller. He missed 11 games in 2014 (resulting in a redshirt), two in ’15 and three last year because of various ailments. That’s 23 games played and 16 missed – not to mention all the ones he participated in last year at less than 100 percent. Kudos to Miller for playing in pain, but as even he conceded, he wasn’t helping the team.

Miller is determined to change that this year. As of spring, he had added almost 10 pounds of muscle to his listed 236-pound frame. He has everything you could want in a pass rusher – athleticism, burst, length – and no Wildcat is more motivated to prove himself.

If he can stay healthy – there’s that word again – Miller easily could work his way into the top three of the MVP rankings by season’s end. It’s just impossible to make that call right now given his history.

THE 17 MOST VALUABLE WILDCATS OF 2017