The New York Giants did not use any of their 10 selections in the 2020 NFL Draft on a wide receiver and many have been critical of that decision since the draft was rich with stud prospects.
It may not be that the Giants were just remiss. It might be because they feel they have a sold group already. Sterling Shepard, Golden Tate and Darius Slayton are the main three with Corey Coleman, Da’Mari Scott, Cody Core and Amba Etta-Tawo the second team.
But there are a slew of young players seeking to make their mark this summer with the Giants. Undrafted rookies Austin Mack, Victor Binjimen and Derrick Dillon will attempt to crack the roster, as will free agent addition Alex Bachman.
But there is one other player that is piquing the interest of Giant fans this offseason. David Sills, an undrafted free agent out of Virginia who finished the 2019 season on the Giants’ active roster, is a real possibility to become a factor in training camp this season.
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Sills has a long history with football scouts and at age 13 was offered a scholarship to USC as a quarterback by Lane Kiffin. He ended up at West Virginia as a wide receiver. Sills played one season at WVU before transferring to El Camino college to try his hand at QB again.
That didn’t quite work out, and Sills found himself back at WVU but this time, he found his niche, scoring 33 touchdowns in his final two seasons there and was named to All-American and All-Big 12 teams in both seasons.
Still, he went undrafted. Too thin and too slow to make it at the next level, many scouts said. The Giants decided to take a shot. They scooped him up and put him on their practice squad after he was released by the Buffalo Bills, where he stayed for 15 weeks before being elevated to the 53-man roster. Sills was inactive for the Giants’ final two games last year, but that may be a thing of the past now.
Last year prepared Sills for the huge jump to the NFL. He drank it all in. Now, he’s ready for the next step in a career that’s taken a decade to take shape.
“Everyday in practice I was going against the first defense and going against good corners and good safeties and good linebackers on a consistent basis,” Sills recently told WV Metro News. “I was taking every single rep. So I was getting my body ready to take a lot of reps.
“I had to give these guys the best look that I could give. Me and a couple of the guys on practice squad, we looked at it like we were going to go out there and show everybody what we were made of. I think that propelled me into putting myself in a good spot for this year.”
Sills will definitely turn some heads at camp. He has excellent hands, can get himself open and, most importantly, has a knack for getting the football into the end zone. He’s been honing his game and feels he’s only going get better.
“The routes in the NFL are a little bit different and a little bit more precise. I’m not going to say it was something I wasn’t good at. But it was something I could definitely refine and be a lot better at. The more reps you get, the better you are going to be at anything,” he said. “They look at you based on what your production is. How it is different than college is that it is not like he is coming in as a freshman, we’ll redshirt him and give him some time and in three or four years he will be a good player for us. Once you get there, they expect you to produce right away.”
The Giants and Sills both hope it doesn’t take those three or four years for him to become a factor. The way things look, they likely won’t have to.
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