Pittsburgh Steelers WR Roman Wilson built up some momentum heading into this week of training camp, putting together good practices. On Tuesday, however, he suffered an ankle injury that figures to sideline him for at least a couple weeks. This doesn’t take Wilson out of the running to be the No. 2 receiver, however, according to Ray Fittipaldo—because he was never in it.
“I think the issue going forward is, how much does this stunt Roman Wilson’s growth?”, he asked on 93.7 The Fan prior to the start of practice on Wednesday. “He’s gonna miss at least one preseason game, probably two. He’s gonna be playing catch-up late in training camp. I just think that’s tough for a rookie to overcome. I never thought [Wilson] was gonna be the No. 2 guy”.
Fittipaldo continued on that same theme, adding, “I thought in the best-case scenario he would be the three. But now you’ve even got to question if he can be the No. 3 receiver going into the season given this injury”.
Of course, Fittipaldo contradicted himself prior to Wilson’s injury. He said just a few days ago that the rookie was in fact putting himself in that WR2 conversation, but I am not the kind of person to point that out.
The Steelers selected Roman Wilson in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft out of Michigan. Nobody immediately pegged him as a Day-1 starter, but given the competition, most figured he would be in the mix.
At least observing from the outside, it seemed that he would have that chance to push for that No. 2 role paired with George Pickens. A couple of strong practices in training camp only added fuel to the fire. Now that he is unlikely to practice much before the start of the regular season, though, they need other options.
Well, they already have other options, but they’re not the most exciting names on the market. Van Jefferson, Quez Watkins, and Scotty Miller are the three veterans they signed to minimum-value contracts this offseason. But this is what they have to work with, especially right now given Roman Wilson’s injury.
“Given their situation in that room, I’ll say a seven”, Fittipaldo said when asked to assess how significant Wilson’s injury was for the wide receiver room. “I think in the short term, this is gonna give more opportunities to guys like Van Jefferson, Quez Watkins, and Scotty Miller to establish themselves with [Justin] Fields and [Roman] Wilson. That’s good for them and potentially good for the quarterbacks”.
On the whole, it seems as though TE Pat Freiermuth and the running backs are going to play a bigger role in the passing game this year. George Pickens is still the only surefire thing at wide receiver, and nobody else is separating themselves. At least they haven’t managed to do so yet or for more than a day or two. Calvin Austin III had his moments but has since seen quieter practices. Van Jefferson makes his plays. Roman Wilson seemed to have the strongest momentum, though, and now he’s playing from behind. It’s hard to say where that leaves the receiver room since we didn’t get to see enough. But it certainly doesn’t hurt the urgency to trade for or otherwise acquire a more accomplished receiver.
