It’s taken quite some time, but there is one hurdle Clemson finally crossed in the NFL Draft over the weekend.

Blake Miller going to Detroit in the first round gives Matt Luke and the Tigers a feather in their cap that the program has not had to this point. Sure, Luke only coached Miller across his final two years at the school, but he can now go out on the recruiting trail and point to Miller as proof that the program can develop linemen into first-round talents.

It’s not like Luke has never produced a first-round talent. He has. And more than one. That pedigree certainly helped him amass one of the nation’s best groups of offensive linemen in the last recruiting cycle. Clemson signed six players at the position in the 2026 class, with five of them being blue-chip talents.

However, until Miller went to the Lions with the No. 17 overall pick last week, Clemson had not produced a first-round offensive lineman since the 1960s. That’s pretty long drought that was snapped.

When Clemson was killing it on the recruiting trail during its run of six consecutive appearances in the College Football Playoff that included two national titles, hitting on top-tier offensive line talent was still a struggle. That’s not to say none were ever signed, but there were a lot of misses on linemen during that stretch.

For that reason, putting linemen into the NFL was seen as the last hurdle the program needed to get over in order to have more consistent success with the big-time prospects coming out of high school. The Tigers did see former five-star Jackson Carman go in the second round of the 2021 draft, but outside of that, the few NFL linemen the program has produced were picked in the later rounds or undrafted free agents.

Over the past decade, the Tigers have seen just five offensive linemen drafted, period, and that includes Miller.

Now Clemson has its first-rounder. With no offensive linemen currently committed in the 2027 recruiting class, that becomes part of the pitch when the Tigers host several targets for the big official visit weekend, May 29-31. Four-star prospects Carter Jones, Elijah Hutcheson, Nate Carson and Reed Ramsier are all set to be on hand, as is three-star Elijah Morrison. Newest offer, four-star JJ Brown, quite possibly ends up giving Clemson an official, as well.

While there is certainly more work to be done, Miller having his name called so early is a huge step in the right direction.

Photo courtesy of Dawson Powers