Dante Stills Details Decision to Forgo the 2022 NFL Draft

The Fairmont, WV native is back for one more run.

Over the last three years, West Virginia defensive lineman Dante Stills has been extremely productive totaling 97 tackles, 38.5 tackles for loss, and 17 sacks.

At the conclusion of last season, Stills toyed with the idea of leaving for the NFL, but wasn't satisfied with his sack production registering only two sacks in 2020 and ultimately decided to return for his senior year. Thanks to the NCAA approving all student-athletes from the 2020-21 season with an extra year of eligibility, Stills will now be returning to WVU for a fifth year this fall. 

Stills sat down in a meeting with his mother (Janeen Floyd), father (Gary Stills), and head coach Neal Brown to go over the feedback from NFL scouts. He took a few days to be by himself and truly think about what the best decision for him would be and he came to the conclusion that he had more to work on and passed on the 2022 NFL Draft. 

"The whole process, I just wanted to be smart with it," Stills said. "I got the data from the coaches and then I went back and watched my own film. I did my own self-evaluation and I was like, I could have done something better here, here, and here. What the scouts were telling me was matching up with what I watched and I just need to be more consistent. Run to the ball every play which I wasn't doing. People always see the sacks, the TFLs and stuff like that and think he's good enough but there's a lot more to it than that in the game that they want that I didn't show. So, this year, it's all about that."

Stills was also asked if he would have still returned to WVU if NIL wasn't around. He quickly shot that narrative down and went into detail about what he wants to accomplish in his final year in Morgantown.

"Yeah. The NIL had nothing to do with it. I feel like West Virginia deserves a championship. I grew up here and I've see a lot of greats go through here and I want to have that feeling that we are finally champions. And I feel like we haven't had the feeling, just as an organization in a while. Last year wasn't good enough and I don't want that feeling again."

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