Top 10 interior defensive linemen in the 2021 NFL Draft

#8 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Darius Stills (West Virginia)

6’ 1”, 285 pounds; SR

Darius Stills

After only seeing the field in one game as a freshman, this former three-star recruit started eight games in 2018.

As a junior he really came onto the scene, when he started all 12 contests and recorded 12 TFLs and six sacks, to go along with a couple of PBUs and fumbles forced each, which earned him first-team All-Big 12 honors. Last season, with three games less, his numbers dropped a little (7.5 TFLs and 3.5 sacks), but he was still named the conference’s Defensive Lineman of the Year and a consensus All-American thanks to the way he impacted games, including an interception.

This guy has a wide frame but plays with consistent urgency and gets off the ball with some explosion, with his brother Dante actually being the only one to beat him off the snap more than every once in a while. That made him one of the best backfield disruptors in all of college football these last two years, shooting through with natural leverage, which he could maintain throughout plays.

He can flash in the backfield and force ball-carriers to redirect or straight up blow things up. On zone run plays, he often rips through the play-side shoulder and works into the backfield, to make the RB cut back, and he has the quickness to back-door centers trying to seal him on the backside-. Even when lined up shaded to the backside, he can crash across the blocker’s face and disrupt things,

When he is engaged with an offensive lineman, he can hit that rapid arm-over as the ball-carrier approaches, to show in the gap. And if he is caught on the wrong side of a block every once in a while, he really works to get over the top and get to the action anyway.

At times, one can see him make the first blocker slip off him, side-step another guy, trying to lead the way and still get hands on the ball-carrier. Watching this man absolutely destroy upbacks on the punt block team is one the biggest joys of my life. Despite playing a lot in-between the A-gaps and receiving plenty of attention, Stills was still on the field for almost every snap and he shows outstanding hustle, to chase guys down, which speaks to his incredible stamina and competitiveness.

Stills offers a ton of power and he routinely overwhelms several offensive linemen in their pass sets, to work into the depth of the pocket – especially when coming on an angle. Plus, he can kind of dip-and-rip underneath offensive linemen, while having the strength to power through contact, as you rarely see him get taken too much off track or widen the arc.

Darius Stills has a violent club arm, to twist the upper body of blockers and he follows through instantly high or low. When left one-on-one with centers, you see him rip to one side and ride the blocker upfield, forcing quarterbacks to take off up the middle routinely. If he has the freedom to counter the other way and he sees the blocker slide his direction, he can almost make that guy miss completely, as he steps through the other way and clears the hands with a perfectly-timed high swim.

He ran a lot of stunts and twists at West Virginia, where he often times worked his way through as the actual set-up man, but he can also be effective as a looper, where he displays some suddenness, after hesitating initially. He bangs into two the guard and center a lot, as he gets double-teamed, and just continues fighting, to create push up the middle.

Overall, Stills is still a rather reckless player. In the run game, he tends to shoot upfield too far at times and open up room on the inside, while being pretty undisciplined with his gap control in general (even though I would guess the WVU coaches allowed that some degree).

That shows up when he tries to crash through the play-side shoulder really hard and with West Virginia running a three-down front primarily, that can leave a huge lane, as the guard works up to the second level. He was never asked to actually stack-and-shed blockers and I’ve seen him get driven backwards a few times by combos or angle blocks on more vertical run schemes.

Stills does a lot of stutter-stepping to set up his rush, where his chest isn’t protected against punches, which slow him down severely, and once that primary move stalls, you don’t see a whole lot of effective counters. He uses too many spin moves in traffic, that don’t really get him anywhere, Moreover. he gets pretty wild in his rush lanes and therefore struggles to re-direct versus scrambling quarterbacks. His pressure numbers dropped pretty dramatically from 2019 to this past season from 33 total and 16 combined sacks and hits to 20 and six respectively, on 56 fewer pass-rush snaps.

However, when you look at the stats overall, with 51 total pressures on 588 pass-rushing snaps over the last two years, that is still a high win-rate at the position, and he did receive a lot more attention this past season. Stills also just recorded a 7.2 in the three-cone drill at his pro day (92nd percentile), speaking of that change-of-direction quickness.

He is a wrecking ball, who can create some issues for his own unit with that style of play at times, but he can also be a highly disruptive player, who will have to learn playing in a more defined role at the next level, but has that versatility to move along the front. I think he could benefit from staying in an odd front, but further away the center, as like a 3/4i and then maybe go back to the nose on passing downs.