Contextualization Of 2018 Receptions Made By WVU WR David Sills

The Pittsburgh Steelers are likely to draft another wide receiver this year and with the team having a need for one and general manager Kevin Colbert and head coach Mike Tomlin both attending the West Virginia pro day this year, it’s very likely wide receiver David Sills will be a target.

Sills checks a lot of boxes already as not only did Colbert and Tomlin attend his pro day, the 6032, 211-pound wide receiver was also a Senior Bowl participant this year. Sills’ 117.8 pSPARQ score also puts him in good shape when it comes to checking boxes that Colbert likes to check with wide receivers as is the fact that the player was team captain at WVU. Sills also had two years of great and consistent production at West Virginia to close out his college career and thus you can consider that another Colbert box as being checked.

When you turn on Sills’ college tape and watch and chart his receptions from the 2018 season, you’ll see that the quarterback-turned-wide receiver also checks a lot of boxes when it comes to his play on the field. Not only was Sills a red zone and scoring threat during his college career, as evidenced by his 35 total touchdowns, he also produced big plays to the tune of 48 receptions of 15 yards or more and 25 of 25 yards or more.

As you’ll see in Sills’ full 2018 reception contextualization below, he played quite a bit in the X position in the West Virginia offense. You’ll also notice that he ran a fairly complete route tree and also made several contested catches during the season. He comes back to the quarterback very well, is more than adequate at picking up yardage after the catch, and tracks deep passes very well.

Of the 65 receptions for 986 yards and 15 touchdowns that Sills had in 2018, his average passing distance on those plays was 10.8 yards. He averaged around 5 yards after the catch in 2018 and that doesn’t take into account his touchdowns caught in the end zone. 13 of the 17 receptions that Sills made on either 3rd or 4th downs resulted in successful plays to boot.

I have tracked down all of Sills’ receptions from his 2018 season and contextualized them for you in the table below. This contextualization includes play data such as down, distance, the distance the pass was thrown, and yards gained after the catch. Each contextualized target is linked to the video of the play for you to watch and I highly advise everyone to do so.

After digesting all of the contextualization below, it should be easy for everyone to see why Sills has a great shot at being drafted by the Steelers this year and probably either in the second or third round. He’s exactly the kind of wide receiver Colbert looks for and he certainly fits a current need. It’s hard to imagine the Steelers not being very high on him like recent the reports indicate.