Mountaineers in the Pros

Darius Stills to Las Vegas Lauded as One of this Year’s Best UDFA Signings

Published

3 years ago

May 10, 2021

Oct 31, 2020; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers defensive lineman Darius Stills (56) leads his team onto the field before their game against the Kansas State Wildcats at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports

Former West Virginia defensive tackle certainly had the resume to be selected in the 2021 NFL Draft. However, the 2020 Big 12 Defensive Lineman of the Year and consensus All-American went unselected in the three-day event last month. Stills’s professional dreams were far from over as he was quickly signed as an undrafted free agent by the Las Vegas Raiders in a move that has since been widely commended.

Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports rated Stills to the Raider as the seventh-best undrafted signing of the 2021 class based on talent and situation. Trapasso touches on Stills’s lack of size for an interior defensive lineman (6-foot, 278 pounds) as the reason we went undrafted, but also mentions several things he likes about Stills’s game.

“He can threaten multiple gaps regardless of where he’s aligned because of his lateral juice, and he understands how to utilize pass-rushing moves to beat defensive linemen,” Trapasso writes. “He absolutely is small for the position at not even 280 pounds but has the athletic gifts, plan of attack when getting upfield, and the production to make a Raiders team that needs a steady one-technique rusher after the release of Maurice Hurst. ”

Vic Tafur of the Athletic also ranks Stills as having the third-best chances of the Raiders’ UDFA signings to make the team’s 53-man roster this season.