After Tavon Austin announced his retirement from the NFL this past year many people were sad to see a legend of the game step away from the action. Seeing a legend go is hard but luckily there are other legendary Mountaineers who can still be seen on Sundays. So where are they now?
The NFL offseason trades kicked up a storm in the NFL community yesterday, and one Mountaineer was shockingly traded from a place he finally called home. That player is Geno Smith. Smith threw for 11,662 yards in his career with the Mountaineers, tallying back-to-back 4,000-yard seasons in 2011 and 2012. Smith threw 98 touchdowns in his collegiate career while only throwing 21 career interceptions. After being selected in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft by the New York Jets, Geno was traded around to many different teams and finally found his home in Seattle, where he started over the past two seasons. Smith went 28-24 as Seattle’s starter, including helping lead the franchise to a playoff berth in 2022. However, on Friday night it was announced that Geno Smith had been traded to the Las Vegas Raiders for a 2025 third round pick. It will be interesting to see how he performs on this new Raiders squad as they had a very underwhelming season this past year.
Unlike Geno, this play has not had to move around the league to find a place to call home; he seems to have already found a home in the desert. Dante Stills was taken in the 6th round of the 2023 NFL draft by the Arizona Cardinals. Since he was drafted, Stills has seen nothing but success. In his short two-year career with the Cardinals, he has tallied 8 sacks, 38 solo tackles, and 89 career tackles. Just like he was when he played for the Mountaineers, Dante Stills is quick, strong, and agile in the pass rush and is great at closing space for tackles out in the open field. Stills is bound to have a breakout year and with two years under his belt and him having those two years to get comfortable with the system, that breakout year could be scheduled for this year.
The final player that fans should be on the lookout for and possibly even forgotten about is Mountaineer legend, David Sills V. Sills has not seen much playing time in the NFL and has been on teams such as the likes of the New York Giants, Denver Broncos, and this season he finds himself a new home in Atlanta with the Falcons. Sills was incredible in his time at West Virginia and was the youngest player to receive a college offer at just 13 years old to play Quarterback at USC. However, Sills would ultimately flip his commitment to West Virginia, where he would transition into the wide receiver position after he was not seeing any playing time at Quarterback. Sills has had an underwhelming NFL career, totaling thirteen receptions on 23 targets for 123 yards and no touchdowns. However, the Falcons are in the process of rebuilding their franchise and wide receiver was a key area of the field where the Falcons were lacking. So a veteran receiver like David Sills could be exactly what they need on the field and in practice to develop their younger talent.
So make sure that you tune in on NFL Sundays to support former Mountaineers, as they have contributed to the development of the Mountaineer football program in different ways. But, the saying still stands: once a Mountaineer, always a Mountaineer.
