After making his NFL debut last week, rookie WR Roman Wilson is back in street clothes for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Sunday night contest against the New York Jets. Wilson is officially inactive due to a hamstring injury that popped up Thursday, limiting him during the Steelers’ Thursday and Friday practices. Wilson is one of the Steelers’ seven inactives for tonight’s game.
It’s the second injury Wilson has suffered during his rookie season. During the first padded practice of training camp, he suffered an ankle injury and missed the rest of the summer, including all three of the team’s preseason games. Those valuable reps put him behind the rest of the wide receivers and made him a weekly inactive the first five weeks of the year even after being lifted from the injury report.
Wilson got a helmet in the Steelers’ Week 6 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. But he logged only five offensive snaps and wasn’t targeted. It’s likely Wilson would’ve again been active this week as the Steelers’ No. 5 receiver had it not been for the injury. But once WR Brandon Johnson was elevated yesterday, it became obvious Wilson would not dress, something ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler confirmed Sunday morning.
Wilson is on track to have one of the least productive rookie seasons by a top Steelers wide receiver draft pick in recent memory. The last top three-round selection to catch fewer than 10 passes as a rookie was Sammie Coates in 2015. Others in that camp include Markus Wheaton in 2013, Limas Sweed in 2008, and Willie Reid in 2006. Still, it’s not even the midway point through the season and Wilson could theoretically surge toward the end of the year.
However, if Pittsburgh acquires a wide receiver at the trade deadline and once RB/WR/KR Cordarrelle Patterson gets healthy, possibly as early as next week, it’ll be that much tougher for Wilson to produce for this offense. Even seeing playing time will be challenging.
