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90 In 30: Steelers 2024 Training Camp Preview Series — Roman Wilson, Russell Wilson, Jacoby Windmon

By Dave Bryan

Posted on July 19, 2024 at 7:15 am

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2024 offseason practices concluded in the middle of June. Next up is the team’s annual training camp, which gets underway in the latter part of July at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. Ahead of Steelers training camp, we will preview the team’s offseason roster three players at a time as part of a multi-post series. This Steelers roster preview, which includes outlooks for every player, will be done alphabetically by last name to make it easy to follow. This series figures to exceed 90 players this year as the team can carry 91 players in total during the offseason due to the allowance of one international player designation.

The next set of players we will preview ahead of the Steelers’ 2024 training camp are Roman Wilson, Russell Wilson and Jacoby Windmon.

WR Roman Wilson: The Steelers selected Roman Wilson in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft out of Michigan. For his four seasons at Michigan, Wilson registered 107 receptions for 1707 yards with 20 touchdowns. He also recorded 7 rushes for 117 yards and 2 touchdowns. Additionally, Wilson returned 6 kickoffs during his college career for 134 yards.

While Wilson predominantly played in the slot during his college career, he did see a fair number of snaps at the outside wide receiver position as well. He averaged 5.4 yards after the catch during his college career and had an average depth of target of 14.1 yards past the line of scrimmage. While Wilson was tabbed by Pro Football Focus as having 7 drops during his college career, he was also credited with 9 contested catches. He also did not fumble during his college career.

At the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine, Wilson measured in at 5106, 185-pounds with 30 3/8-inch arms and 9 3/8-inch hands. He reportedly ran his 40-yard-dash in 4.39-seconds and did 12 reps on the bench. At his Michigan pro day, Wilson ran his short-shuttle in 4.07-seconds and his three-cone drill in 6.89-seconds, both particularly good times.

Outlook: As a third-round draft pick this year, Roman Wilson should obviously be on the Steelers’ 53-man roster. Additionally, he’s likely to dress for games right at the start of the 2024 regular season and see playing time on offense. That playing time could increase for Wilson as the season rolls on.

Wilson exited college probably best suited to play in the slot. Even so, his experience playing on the outside at Michigan should allow for the Steelers to move him around in their offense some. He has more to prove as an outside wide receiver than as a slot option and especially against man-coverage, something he did not face a ton of during his college career. While Wilson showed during college to be a willing-and-able blocker, strides in that phase of his game should be expected to improve at the NFL level.

The Steelers enter training camp this year with a lot of questions concerning their wide receiver depth chart and especially behind George Pickens. Because of that, it’s somewhat reasonable to expect Wilson to finish second or third on the team in receptions by wide receivers in 2024. However, expecting Wilson to hit the 40-reception mark as a rookie might be a little rich. He will get playing time and targets in 2024. The only real question is how much of each he’ll receive as a rookie.

QB Russell Wilson: Following his expected release from the Denver Broncos earlier in the offseason, the Steelers signed Russell Wilson to a one-year contract for the veteran minimum in the middle of March. Wilson signed on the cheap because of the guaranteed money that the Broncos must pay him in 2024, which is nearly $40 million.

The Broncos soured on Wilson after just two seasons, so much so that they were willing to take a huge dead money salary cap charge as part of terminating his contract this offseason.

In his two seasons with the Broncos, Wilson completed 589 of his 930 total pass attempts for 6,594 yards with 42 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. He also rushed for 618 yards and 6 touchdowns on 135 attempts in his two seasons in Denver.

Wilson, however, was sacked 100 total times in the last two seasons. His completed air yards per completion average for the last two seasons was a lowly 5.3 and that matched the stat that former Steelers QB Kenny Pickett had for that same span of time.

In 2023, Wilson completed 6 passes that flew in the air at least 40 yards past the original line of scrimmage and he led the entire NFL in that statistic. Four of those 6 completions with 40 or more air yards resulted in touchdowns, and that also led the entire NFL in that statistic in 2023.

Outlook: As the most experienced quarterback on the Steelers’ roster this year, it’s very reasonable to expect Russell Wilson to open the 2024 regular season as the starter. From there, how Wilson plays will determine if he keeps the job the entire season. The Steelers did trade for QB Justin Fields this offseason and with that, it’s reasonable to expect the former first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears to see some limited playing time as part of certain packages. Even so, Fields’ playing time is expected to be very limited as long as Russell Wison is the starter.

Wilson has been sacked a ton the last two seasons, 100 times in total. His sack totals really need to decrease in his first season in Pittsburgh. In the offense that new Steelers OC Arthur Smith is expected to run in Pittsburgh, one primary goal should be for Russell Wilson to get the football out quickly and rhythmically. If that’s accomplished, Wilson’s sack totals should hopefully decrease some.

While Wilson has only thrown 19 total interceptions in his last two seasons and a total of 42 touchdown passes, his combined ANY/A (adjusted net yards per attempt) stat for his time with the Broncos was just 5.78, and that’s not going to cut it in Pittsburgh. Ideally, Russell Wilson’s ANY/A stat for 2024 will be close to 7.00, if not greater.

While closing in on 36 years of age, Wilson still has the arm strength to push the football down the field. However, there have been questions about his middle of the field abilities for some time now. The Steelers have struggled with their red zone passing game the last several seasons and the expectations are for Wilson to help fix that.

This year is a huge season for Russell Wilson. If he performs well and leads the Steelers into the playoffs and gets at least one win in the tournament, the organization could wind up rewarding him with a lucrative extension to be their starter the next few seasons. If, however, Wilson plays poorly for multiple games, he could wind up being benched in favor of Fields and ultimately out of Pittsburgh after just one season.

ILB Jacoby Windmon: The Steelers only signed five undrafted free agents this year, and Windmon, a Michigan State product via UNLV, was one of them. For his college career, Windmon registered 233 total tackles, 27 for loss, 18.5 sacks, an interception, 6 passes defensed, 9 forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

In his last two college seasons at Michigan State, he recorded 64 total tackles, 12.5 for loss, 6.5 sacks, an interception, 2 passes defensed, 6 forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

In 2022, Windmon was one of seven Michigan State players charged with assault for their roles in a postgame tunnel incident following a loss at Michigan. That resulted in him being suspended for the final four games of the year. Last season, Windmon only played in three games as a reported early-year pectoral muscle injury resulted in him missing several games.

Windmon played as an edge rusher and off-the-ball linebacker during his college career. He measured in at his 2024 pro day at 6006, 235-pounds with 32 3/8-inch arms and 9 5/8-inch hands. He reportedly ran his 40-yard-dash in 4.65-seconds and his short-shuttle in 4.40-seconds. His three-cone time was reportedly 7.31-seconds, and he did 16 reps on the bench at his pro day.

Outlook: The Steelers have quite the stacked inside linebacker room as they head into training camp and it includes Payton Wilson, who was selected in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Additionally, the Steelers inside linebacker room includes the likes of several experienced players in Patrick Queen, Elandon Roberts, Cole Holcomb, Tyler Matakevich and Mark Robinson. This crowded position group will make it extremely tough, if not impossible, for Windmon to make the 53-man roster as a rookie.

While Windmon did play on the edge quite a bit in college, his best position at the NFL level is likely to be as an inside linebacker in the Steelers’ system. Windmon should also function well on special teams and hopefully we see a lot of that during the preseason. Assuming Windmon stays in the inside linebacker room this summer, we should see him get some late-game playing time at the position during the preseason. It’s probably not totally out of the question that he gets some edge snaps, but that’s obviously far from guaranteed to happen.

All told, Windmon looks like he’ll be competing for a practice squad spot this summer. That seems very achievable at this point of the offseason.

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