David Sills returns to practice as the Bucs open his 21-day window

The Buccaneers moved a receiver back toward the field on Monday, October 12. They opened the 21-day return-to-practice window for David Sills, who has been on injured reserve with a hamstring injury, and he is set to practice on Wednesday (Pro Football Talk, Buccaneers.com).

Key facts

• The Buccaneers opened David Sills' 21-day return-to-practice window on Monday, October 12, and he is set to practice on Wednesday (Pro Football Talk, October 12).
• Sills has been on injured reserve with a hamstring injury suffered in practice during the preseason (Buccaneers.com, October 12).
• Tampa Bay started the season with six receivers and has five since Jalen McMillan went on injured reserve on September 30 (Buccaneers.com, October 12).
• Sills followed offensive coordinator Zac Robinson from Atlanta and set career highs in 2025 with 18 catches, 191 yards and two touchdowns (Buccaneers.com, Pro Football Talk).
• Sills has 31 catches for 315 yards and two touchdowns in 33 career games, 11 of them starts (Buccaneers.com, October 12).
• The Buccaneers, 1-4, host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, October 18, at 1:00 PM ET, 19:00 CEST, on CBS (ESPN).

What the window means

A 21-day window lets a player on injured reserve practice with the team without taking a spot on the 53-man roster. The Bucs can activate Sills at any point in those three weeks (Pro Football Talk). To do it they need a corresponding roster move, which would bring the receiver room back to six (Buccaneers.com).

Sills hurt his hamstring in practice during the preseason, according to Buccaneers.com, and has missed five games (Pro Football Talk). The team had designated him to return when it set its initial roster, as we reported in our roster cutdown breakdown.

Why the receiver room needs him

Tampa Bay began the season with six receivers. When Jalen McMillan went on injured reserve on September 30 with a knee injury, the group dropped to five (Buccaneers.com). Our McMillan report has the details of that injury.

The offense has done well with what it has. In the 24-16 win over the Cowboys on October 8, Tampa Bay ran for 241 yards and Emeka Egbuka scored on an end-around; the full numbers are in our Cowboys recap. The current group is on the depth chart.

Who Sills is

Sills is 6-3 and 211 pounds and converted from quarterback to receiver at West Virginia. He entered the league as an undrafted free agent with the Buffalo Bills in 2019 (Buccaneers.com). After stops with the Giants and Broncos, he joined the Falcons in January 2025 (Buccaneers.com).

Source: Buccaneers.com, Pro Football Talk, October 12.

The Robinson connection

Sills played in Zac Robinson's offense in Atlanta in 2025 and followed the offensive coordinator to Tampa Bay on a one-year contract (Buccaneers.com, Pro Football Talk). That matters for a player coming back from a long absence: he already knows the language of the system, which our Robinson offense explainer breaks down.

He also has history against this team. In Atlanta's one-point win over the Buccaneers in Tampa last season he caught six passes for 78 yards, his most productive game of 2025 (Buccaneers.com).

What comes next

The Steelers visit Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, October 18, at 1:00 PM ET, 19:00 CEST, on CBS (ESPN). The schedule has the full picture. The first injury report of the week arrives on Wednesday, when Sills is set to be on the practice field.

For a 1-4 team with five receivers, the return of a player who already knows Robinson's offense is the kind of quiet move that gives the coaching staff another option. The Bucs have three weeks to decide how much of one they want.