Maybe the Tampa Bay Buccaneers‘ plan for wide receivers in 2026 is strength by numbers, which might end up being a pretty great plan in the long run.
The Buccaneers added another face to their wide receiver ranks on Tuesday by signing veteran David Sills, who played for the Atlanta Falcons in 2025.
“Bucs have signed former Falcons receiver David Sills, who worked with OC Zac Robinson the last two years in Atlanta,” Fox Sports NFL reporter Greg Auman wrote on his official X account. “Adds size and depth to Bucs’ receiving corps. Sills is 29, had a career-best 18 catches for 191 yards and two TDs last year with the Falcons. Had six for 78 in Falcons’ comeback win over Bucs, including a key fourth-and-14 catch to help set up the winning field goal.”
Sills, 6-foot-3 and 211 pounds, is in his 8th NFL season and has previous stints with the Buffalo Bills, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos.
David Sills Gained Fame as 13-Year-Old QB
If Sills’ name rings some bells, it might be because he 1st grabbed headlines in 2010 when he became a national punchline after then-USC head coach Lane Kiffin offered him a scholarship to play quarterback for the Trojans when he was only in the 7th grade.
At the time, Sills, a Bear, Delaware, native, was being called the “best young phenom since Tiger Woods,” by famed quarterbacks coach Steve Clarkson.
“As for the length of the commitment and the mercurial nature of college football recruiting, it’s safe to assume both parties went into this with eyes open,” Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples wrote in 2010. “Sills’ father, also named David, is a successful general contractor. He’s not dumb. He certainly understands Kiffin may not even be coaching at USC in 2015. He may have moved on, or he may not have won enough games to keep the job. But at the moment, USC is his son’s dream school. That could change, but neither Sills nor USC has to walk down the aisle until February 2015.”
Kiffin was eventually fired in 2013 — a full 2 years before Sills even graduated from high school.
David Sills Turned Into All-American WR at WVU
Sills began his college career as a quarterback at West Virginia and saw spot action at wide receiver before he transferred to El Camino — a California junior college — for his 2nd season after he was buried on the depth chart.
After 1 season at El Camino, Sills returned to West Virginia as a wide receiver and saw his career take off. He was an All-Big 12 and All-American in 2017 with 60 receptions for 980 yards and an incredible 18 touchdowns, then followed that up in 2018 with 65 receptions for 986 yards and 15 touchdowns.
After running the 40-yard dash in 4.57 seconds at the NFL scouting combine, Sills went undrafted before signing with the Bills in 2019 as an undrafted free agent, but didn’t appear in a regular-season game until 2021, with the Giants.
One thing Sills does that might help the Buccaneers outside of the normal way of thinking about wide receivers is by being an elite blocking wide receiver — it’s how he managed to be on the field for 52 percent of Atlanta’s offensive snaps in 2025 and helped contribute to Falcons running back Bijan Robinson putting up 2,298 yards of total offense and earning NFL All-Pro honors.
Bucs Sign 6-foot-3, 211-Pound WR After ‘Career Best’ Season