From Slippery Rock to the NFL

For Kyle Sheets, he always knew football was going to be a passion. Sheets said, “My dad showed me his high school football tapes when I was really young and I would go outside and throw the football to myself and reenact football games.” 

Sheets is from a small town called Springboro, PA, which is just north of Conneaut Lake. The high school had a little over 100 students in his graduating class and that was because they had to combine three schools to get to that number. 

Sheets was the starting quarterback in high school and played some wide receiver as a sophomore at Conneaut Area High School. He lettered in basketball for three years and football for four years while in high school. 

“I wanted to play basketball for a while and I was really focusing on that, but then I went to camps for football and I knew that was what I wanted to do,” Sheets said. Those football camps included two years at Slippery Rock and after the first camp year, the "Rock" offered him a scholarship to play wide receiver.

The 6’4” 220 lbs. Sheets started on special teams in 2019 and caught one pass for 10 yards. After losing the 2020 season due to Covid-19, he came back in 2021 and started 5 games where he caught 23 passes for 357 yards and 3 touchdowns. Sheets improve on his numbers as a junior, starting all 12 games and hauling in 54 passes for 887 yards and 9 touchdowns. After the season he was named a second team All-PSAC West honoree.

Coming into the 2023 season Sheets had two goals—winning a National Championship and becoming an All-American. The season however, did not start the way Sheets had hoped it would. On the third play from scrimmage, Sheets' head violently bounced off the turf leading to a concussion. 

“Not the way you want your senior year to start,” Sheets quipped. He went into concussion protocol and was not released from it until the morning of the week 2 game. He had a nice bounce back game however, hauling in 2 passes for 123 yards, and both catches were touchdowns. 

The following week Sheets had a career day against Millersville, catching 12 passes for 210 yards and 3 touchdowns. This was just a foreshadowing of how dominant his final collegiate season would be. In 14 games he caught 76 passes for 1,186 yards and 17 touchdowns. 

He helped lead Slippery Rock to a 12-2 record and a run in the playoffs that ended in the quarterfinals. Sheets may have not reached his first goal of a National Championship, but his second goal became a reality. He was named a 1st Team All-American from the AFCA. All together Sheets was named to five-All-America teams.

During the season, NFL teams started paying attention to what he was doing on the field. All together it was estimated that 18 NFL teams were in contact or at practices and games to watch Sheets. He finished his Slippery Rock career 4th all-time in career receiving yards with 2,440, adding 29 receiving touchdowns, good enough for 3rd all-time in the history of the school. 

With the season over he went to a pro day at Temple to showcase his skills and speed. At 6’4” and 220 lbs., he ran a 4.52 in front of scouts, while doing 16 reps in the benchpress. “I wanted to run 4.49, but I did improve on an earlier time of 4.58,” Sheets said. 

When asked if there is a Division II wide receiver that you can look to for NFL success, Sheets replied “Adam Thielen.” Thielen went undrafted in 2013 out of Minnesota State but enjoyed a successful 10-year career and is coming off a 103 catch season for the Carolina Panthers. 

During draft weekend, Sheets said he is very excited and is not putting pressure on being selected. "I don’t see myself being slotted in a round and I see myself being a UDFA. I want to be able to tell my parents that I am going to the NFL. There will be tears,” Sheets said.