If you want proof that context matters in NFL Draft evaluation, look no further than Christen Miller’s career arc at Georgia. He arrived in Athens as a four-star recruit and spent his first two years buried behind first-round picks Jordan Davis, Devonte Wyatt, and Jalen Carter — three players who all heard their names called on Day 1.
Georgia
Paper ballots focus of latest election reform push in Georgia legislature
ATLANTA – Five years ago, the General Assembly’s Republican majorities passed legislation providing for a paper backup to electronic ballots, a move aimed at giving Georgians more confidence their votes are being counted correctly.
But legislative leaders aren’t content with that election reform measure. This year, they’re pushing a series of bills aimed largely at paper ballots responding to election watchdog groups clamoring for more tools to ensure accurate outcomes.
“It will bring more confidence,” state Rep. Steve Tarvin, R-Chickamauga, said on the House floor Jan. 31. “It’s something we need to restore.”
The 2024 crop of election bills includes:
- Senate Bill 89 and House Bill 975, requiring use of the text portion of paper ballots in tabulating votes rather than QR codes.
- House Bill 974, requiring Georgia’s secretary of state to develop and implement a statewide system allowing members of the voting public to scan paper ballots.
- House Bill 976, requiring a “visible security device” in the form of a watermark on paper ballots.
- House Bill 977, expanding the number of races subject to “risk-limiting” audits.
The QR codes bill already has cleared the Senate Ethics Committee but remains pending before the House Governmental Affairs Committee. Republican lawmakers have cited numerous complaints from constituents about the use of QR codes.
“There’s been a lot of doubt surrounding the QR code, voters questioning whether the QR code is interpreting their vote accurately,” said Rep. John LaHood, R-Valdosta, chairman of the House Governmental Affairs Committee. “Having the actual text they can see and interpret themselves … is the right correction for us to go in.”
Former Republican Rep. Scot Turner of Cherokee County told members of the House panel he tried unsuccessfully to amend the 2019 bill to get rid of the QR code.
“Nobody’s going to trust the QR codes,” he said.
Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Max Burns, R-Sylvania, said the Dominion touch-screen voting system the state uses is capable of allowing the text portion of paper ballots to tabulate votes instead of the QR code.
“We’re going to leave the details and technical requirements up to the secretary of state,” he said.
But those technical requirements are giving the House committee pause. The panel has yet to act on the House version of the legislation amid questions surrounding the cost and who’s going to pay for it.
“This could require a heavy purchase of equipment,” LaHood said.
“I’m opposed to any unfunded mandates on counties until we have more information,” added Rep. Shea Roberts, D-Atlanta.
The House hasn’t hesitated on the watermark bill, the only one of the four measures that has cleared a legislative chamber. The House passed House Bill 976 Jan. 31 with only one “no” vote.
LaHood told his House colleagues before the vote the legislation would require a one-time cost of $110,000.
“This is a low-cost, high-value measure,” he said.
The other two bills – House Bill 974 and House Bill 977 – have passed the Governmental Affairs Committee but not yet reached the House floor.
House Bill 974 would expand to a statewide program an existing pilot project giving voters the ability to scan paper ballots online.
More: Bipartisan sports betting bill passes in Georgia Senate, but late amendment might capsize it
“This is something that can be implemented right away,” LaHood said. “(The secretary of state) is making provisions to do this.”
House Bill 977 would expand the number of election contests subject to audits from just the race at the top of the ballot to a second race involving one of the statewide races. The second race to be audited would be chosen by a committee of five officials: the governor, lieutenant governor, the speaker of the state House of Representatives, and the House and Senate minority leaders.
Anne Herring, policy analyst for Common Cause Georgia, raised concerns about the latter provision.
“The governor and lieutenant governor get to vote on whether their own races will be audited,” Herring told LaHood’s committee. “That’s a little concerning to me in terms of public confidence in elections.”
LaHood said including the two minority leaders and bringing the membership to five should allay those concerns.
“One or two people couldn’t sway that decision,” he said. “We need three people to vote together.”
The full House and Senate are expected to act on all of the election reform bills this month.
Wildfires burning across the south-eastern US intensified on Wednesday across parts of south-east Georgia, where 50 homes were destroyed, and across north-east Florida, forcing evacuations and school closures in some communities.
The Georgia forestry commission issued its first mandatory burn ban in the state’s history, effective across 91 counties in the lower half of the state, due to worsening drought conditions and rising wildfire activity.
“My office and I are working closely with the Georgia Forestry Commission to respond to the increasing threat of wildfires in South Georgia,” Governor Brian Kemp wrote on X. ”If you are in a directly affected area, please adhere to guidance from your local officials to keep you and your family safe.”
Smoke from the fires drifted to Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, as well as Jacksonville, Florida, while air quality in parts of south Georgia declined to the unhealthy category.
Smoky conditions were expected to linger in the Atlanta area throughout the day, according to the Atlanta-Fulton county emergency management agency, as the worst blazes burned more than 200 miles from the city.
Some of the biggest blazes are reported to be along Georgia’s coast and around Jacksonville, Florida. They have been exacerbated by a long drought, low humidity and strong winds in the area.
Georgia’s two biggest wildfires together have burned more than 31 sq miles, and at least four other smaller fires have been reported.
Drought in the contiguous US has reached record levels for this time of year. More than 61% of the lower 48 states are in moderate to exceptional drought – including 97% of the south-east and two-thirds of the west – according to the US Drought Monitor. It’s the highest level of drought for this time of year since the drought monitor began in 2000.
Florida, the area where the worst fires are burning, is in exceptional or extreme drought, according to the monitor. Firefighters are battling 131 wildfires that had burned 34 sq miles, mostly in the state’s northern half.
Firefighting equipment was being staged across the state so resources are closer to the fires, the Florida commissioner of agriculture, Wilton Simpson, said.
“Florida has got one of the worst fire seasons in maybe the last 30 or 40 years or it’s turning out to be that way,” Simpson said. “We’ve been in drought for 18 months now all across the state.”
The fast-moving Brantley county fire in south-east Georgia is threatening more homes on Wednesday after destroying 47 a day earlier, according to the county manager, Joey Cason, who said the fire grew roughly six times in size over a half day. Nearly two dozen fire agencies called in to help fight the blaze, Cason said at a news conference. At least 800 evacuations have taken place in the county and five shelters have opened, as the fire threatens 300 more homes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.
The Brantley county sheriff, Len Davis, warned residents to be ready to evacuate, noting that the winds could shift rapidly and unexpectedly.
Another large fire that started in Clinch county had also forced evacuations, which were underway in multiple communities, the Georgia forestry association said.
“This is a serious and evolving situation,” said Tim Lowrimore, president & CEO of the association.
(WSAV) — The man accused of shooting and killing three people in Dekalb County April 13 was found dead in his jail cell, officials confirmed Monday night.
Olaolukitan Adon-Abel was found unresponsive in his jail cell at 6:48 p.m., a Dekalb County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said. Life-saving measures were performed, according to officials.
He was pronounced dead at 7:17 p.m.
Adon-Abel was charged with malice murder, aggravated assault and firearms counts in connection to the shooting deaths of Prianna Weathers, Tony Mathews and Lauren Bullis.
In 2025, Adon-Abel plead guilty in Chatham County Recorder’s Court to multiple misdemeanor counts of sexual battery for groping women in Chatham County under the name Adon Olaolukitan.
According to court documents, he was banned from Savannah for four years and ordered to undergo a psychosexual evaluation.
The official cause will be determined by the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office, and a standard internal review has been launched, according to officials.
At this time, the sheriff’s office said there are no indications of foul play. No additional details were released.
The defensive tackle assembly line at Georgia is nothing short of extraordinary, and Miller patiently waited his turn. By 2024, his turn had arrived, and what NFL scouts saw was a prototypically built interior defender who carries his 321-pound frame with impressive athleticism and natural leverage.
Miller’s greatest asset is his run defense. He is a solid anchor — quick to press his hands into blockers, disciplined about maintaining gap integrity, and stout enough to hold the point of attack against double teams that would cave lesser prospects — but he’s not dominant.
His lateral mobility is a genuine differentiator for a man his size; he can scrape down the line to close on outside runs or loop inside on stunts without losing his footing or pad level.
That combination of power and movement is why Georgia trusted him on the field for passing downs, and it’s why scouts project him as an immediate contributor against the run at the NFL level.
The legitimate questions surrounding Miller center on his pass-rush production and his still-developing anticipation skills. Over his entire collegiate career, he accumulated only four sacks — never cracking two in a single season.
Still, Miller’s athleticism stands out immediately — he carries his size well and shows the lateral quickness you don’t always find at his frame. His hands have some pop, and he’s flashed the ability to jolt interior linemen off their spot. But he’s a prospect defined more by his floor than his ceiling.
No single trait rises above average, which means his pass-rush production will hinge on technique and motor rather than any physical advantage. He also needs to improve as a finisher — getting close isn’t enough at the next level.
The traits for pass-rush development are present: he has good first-step quickness, flashes as a one-gap penetrator, and showed enough in stunt packages to keep offensive linemen honest. But he has yet to build a consistent, go-to counter move when his initial rush is neutralized. Against better competition, his reaction time to the snap can be late, and he can drift out of his gap assignment when he tries to freelance for a big play.
What Miller offers any franchise is a high floor with a realistic upside trajectory. He comes from one of college football’s most technically demanding defensive line programs, coached by coaches who regularly develop NFL talent.
He plays with a motor that never stops. He competed in SEC trenches for two-plus seasons and was named to the All-SEC First Team as a senior. The experience and winning culture he brings — two state championships in high school, a national championship at Georgia — will matter to coaches who value locker-room character.
The ceiling here isn’t flashy, but it’s tangible: a reliable, two-down starting defensive tackle who keeps blocks clean and lets linebackers run free. In a league that increasingly prizes versatile, multi-technique interior linemen, Miller’s ability to play the nose or the B-gap makes him a schematic asset for even-front and two-gap systems. Don’t sleep on him because his sack totals are modest — evaluating him solely by that metric would miss the forest for the trees.
Miller’s fit in Green Bay is an interesting one. The Packers are switching to a 3-4 base defense under new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, and they lack a proven run-stuffing nose tackle while being long overdue for a meaningful investment on the defensive interior — which is exactly the profile Miller fits.
The team brought him in for a pre-draft visit, signaling genuine interest, and his skill set maps cleanly onto what Green Bay needs. His calling card — an elite run defense grade that ranked second among all FBS defensive tackles — translates directly to what Gannon will ask of his interior linemen, and his versatility to play nose in an odd front or kick out to three-technique in sub packages only adds to the appeal.
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