A week and a half before Super Bowl LVII, the Philadelphia Eagles are facing a disturbing situation with one player on their roster. Josh Sills, listed as the team’s backup right guard on their most recent depth chart, has been indicted on one charge of rape and one charge of kidnapping over a 2019 incident. NBC4i Columbus’ Orri Benatar wrote about that Wednesday morning:
BREAKING: An offensive lineman on the Philadelphia Eagles has been indicted in an Ohio court on charges of rape and kidnapping.https://t.co/7ZZy3Kx4Cf
— NBC4 Columbus (@nbc4i) February 1, 2023
Here’s more from Benatar’s piece:
A Guernsey County grand jury indicted Eagles guard Joshua Sills, 25, from Sarahsville, Ohio for one count of rape and one count of kidnapping stemming from a 2019 incident.
According to court records, Sills allegedly engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with a woman and held the victim against her will in December 2019. He is listed to be summoned in Guernsey County Common Pleas court on Feb. 16.
The office of Ohio attorney general Dave Yost put out a statement on this, saying the crime “was immediately reported,” and the charges now stem from a “detailed investigation” by the Guernsey County Sheriff’s Office:
Joshua Matthew Sills, 25, was indicted by a Guernsey County Common Pleas Court grand jury on one count of rape and one count of kidnapping, both first-degree felonies. Sills is an offensive guard for the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles.
In December 2019, the indictment says, Sills engaged in sexual activity that was not consensual and held a victim against her will. The crime was immediately reported, and the Guernsey County Sheriff’s Office conducted a detailed investigation.
The case was presented to the grand jury and is being prosecuted by the Special Prosecutions Section of the Attorney General’s Office.
Sills played collegiately for the West Virginia Mountaineers from 2016-2019, then transferred to Oklahoma State ahead of the 2020 season. He played two seasons there for the Cowboys (he’s seen above during the Jan. 1, 2022 Fiesta Bowl), then declared for the 2022 NFL Draft. He wasn’t chosen in that draft, but signed with the Eagles as an undrafted free agent and became one of three undrafted players (along with Reed Blankenship and Josh Jobe) to make their roster this season. However, his only game action this season was in Week Five, where he saw several special teams snaps.
We’ll see how the Eagles address the Sills situation.
Update: The NFL has placed Sills on the commissioner exempt list.
The NFL placed Philadelphia Eagles OL Josh Sills on the Commissioner Exempt List following today’s indictment by an Ohio grand jury. Sills can’t participate in practices and games or travel with the team while on the Commissioner Exempt List.
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) February 1, 2023
