Continuing with the series, I wanted to look at and provide more context for the wide receiver position and Steelers third round pick Roman Wilson. To begin, I will focus on players selected in the 2024 NFL draft, and one player was excluded due to Pro Football Focus (PFF) not tracking a small school players. Today’s goal to see how Wilson stacked up to his peers and see what this could mean in Pittsburgh for 2024.
Here are the players run blocking snaps and grades for the 2023 regular season (34 qualifiers):
For starters, Wilson had 193 run blocking snaps, ranking 25th out of the 34 qualifying wide receivers in the 2024 draft. That was clearly below-average, as we see on the visual, especially considering the players on the far left missed games last season. Wilson was closer to the mean in PFF grade but landed slightly below it with a 58.2 number, ranking 20th.
A narrative circling on Wilson is his “want-to” in run blocking. That desire and attitude is of course what you want to hear, required to have any success in doing so. But he wasn’t asked to do so often in comparison to the group, and in PFF’s eyes was slightly below average when he did.
It isn’t an end-all reason, but size can play a factor in being a solid blocker at wide receiver. Looking at that deeper, we see several names at the top of the run blocking grades that provide it. Most notably, Florida State’s Johnny Wilson and several other above-the-mean blockers in PFF’s eyes having above-average size as well.
Zooming back to Wilson, he measured in at a 5106 and 185 pounds at the combine. Of the 34 qualifying WRs, his weight ranked 30th, and was 29th in height. So, if you buy into the notion of this point, we see that Wilson’s run blocking rank (20th) exceeded expectations for his size.
Of course, run blocking is not at the top of Wilson’s strengths as a player, but there is some silver lining when considering the size component. Another important factor is alignment, with Wilson playing the majority of time in the slot, which is expected to continue in Pittsburgh.
Last season, former Steelers Allen Robinson II assumed the majority of those duties. He had good moments, with more of a reputation and expectation of quality blocking, along with the size as a big slot receiver (listed at 6-3 220). That didn’t always equal production, and came out with a 55.6 run block grade in 2023.
Pittsburgh has also had other experiments from smaller slot receivers as run blockers, Gunner Olszewski coming in recent memory for example. He also had the “want-to”, but was jettisoned for other reasons in 2023, with two costly turnovers in very limited action on offense and the return game. In 2022 though, Olszewski had 126 run blocking snaps, and posted a respectable 64.0 run block grade.
It’s not meant to be a definitive comparison, but it is nice to see an example of a smaller slot have some recent success as a blocker in Pittsburgh, especially considering some tall tasks the Steelers ask from the position at times, like blocking defensive ends.
That will be interesting to monitor with new Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, hopefully putting players in more ideal situations moving forward. Out of sheer curiosity, I looked at the position under Smith last season to see who the highest graded run blockers where.
Surprisingly, newly acquired Scotty Miller topped the list at 63.7, on 133 run block snaps (fifth-most on team). He is listed at 5-9, 174 pounds, smaller than Wilson. While the grades aren’t the be-all and-all, we see another encouraging example of a small receiver tied to Pittsburgh having some success as a run blocker under Smith in 2023.
The team brought in several other players that formerly played under Smith, but unfortunately one of them had a low run blocking grade, Van Jefferson (46.5). He was only with Smith for part of the season, traded from the Rams to the Falcons after Week 5. With Atlanta, his run block grade improved noticeably (Rams – 36.1, Falcons – 59.9).
While none of the run blocking data is awe inspiring, there are encouraging takeaways as we anticipate what it could look like in 2024. It isn’t known as Wilson’s forte as we saw on the visual, but graded well among his peers particularly considering his size, along with his expected primary alignment as a slot receiver.
Seeing some recent trends of former Steelers, and newly acquired ones that have played under Smith bring optimism. Of course, the grades are subjective, but we see signs of hope that Wilson can do some things for Pittsburgh in this regard. Here’s to hoping that is the case, with several roles behind George Pickens still up for grabs, and being a plus run blocker certainly wouldn’t hurt his cause.
