Former Pittsburgh Steelers practice squad wide receiver Devon Wylie has died. He was 35. The cause of death is currently unknown. He spent two weeks on the Steelers’ practice squad, initially signed on Oct. 16, 2013, and released on Oct. 30.
Wylie’s death occurred earlier this week with Fresno State’s Twitter account, the school he went to, announcing the news yesterday morning.
Wylie was a star high school player at Granite Bay High School in California, which landed him at Fresno State University where he played the entirety of his college career. At Fresno, he made a name for himself as a return specialist and gained 1,327 yards and eight touchdowns on 98 receptions as a wide receiver.
Injuries cut his NFL career short, playing in his rookie season with the Kansas City Chiefs after they spent a fourth round draft pick on him. He then briefly spent time on the Tennessee Titans before bouncing around to seven different team, including the Steelers.
With the Chiefs, he caught six passes for 53 yards and returned seven total punts in his career for 30 yards.
He was added to the Steelers’ practice squad back in 2013 as a result of a pinky injury to Markus Wheaton, but once Wheaton was able to return he was released. Richard Mann, the wide receiver coach back in 2013, had some words to say about him when he was initially added.
“I think what it is, is another set of legs and plus I’ve heard that he’s a pretty good receiver,” said Mann. “I don’t know him that well. Getting to know him, spent a lot of time together in the last day or so, but that’s another set of legs that will help us in practice, because with Markus [Wheaton] down, that puts a little more pressure on the guys to be on the show teams and I think Coach [Mike] Tomlin is just giving us a chance to not wear a couple guys out all the time.”
