Just because a player is on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ roster, doesn’t mean they have earned the distinction of truly being a Steeler. Just like in Baltimore where they say you aren’t a Raven until you beat the Steelers, players have to earn their stripes in Pittsburgh. For Mike Williams, that happened rather quickly.
After being acquired on Tuesday just ahead of the trade deadline, Williams had four days to get up to speed enough to make his Steelers debut. He only ended up playing nine snaps, and a few of those may have been because Calvin Austin III exited the game with an injury toward the end of the fourth quarter. But that’s all he needed to make the game-winning score with just over two minutes remaining while the Steelers trailed by six points.
The NFL posted a Mic’d Up segment of the Steelers on X this afternoon, and it was Mike Tomlin’s message to Williams after the big play.
“You’re a Steelers now, baby!” Tomlin said. “You’re a Steeler now, welcome.”
George Pickens was very excited for him, too. As Tomlin welcomed Williams to Pittsburgh, Pickens was yelling “Yeah!” repeatedly. Pickens told reporters after the game that he was advising Williams to “stay in it” throughout the game as he was seeing very few snaps. Sure enough, the Steelers called upon Williams in the biggest moment.
This is one of those moments that you can circle as when Williams earned the trust of both Russell Wilson and Tomlin. If he has their trust, his share of both snaps and targets will rapidly increase. With just nine snaps in this first game, he should easily double that—if not more—against the Ravens next week.
For a fifth-round pick, the early returns look really strong for Williams, who was basically a throwaway for the struggling New York Jets.
