Pittsburgh Steelers Exit Meeting: WR Roman Wilson
Experience: 1 Year
Nobody was more disappointed in Roman Wilson’s rookie season with the Steelers than Roman Wilson. A part of me feels like I need to point that out, as though people think he appreciated the vacation. But no, the Steelers drafted him in the third round to play. He just fell behind the 8-ball very quickly and could never get back out in front of it.
A Michigan product, Roman Wilson played five snaps in one game during his Steelers rookie season. Injuries defined his first year in the NFL, but only the Steelers know how much more there is to it. Now they enter this offseason having no idea what they have in him and what they need at wide receiver.
Now, the Steelers didn’t expect Wilson to take off like gangbusters, even if he was part of their plan. Even after trading Diontae Johnson, they actively pursued numerous high-profile trade candidates, only for all of them to fall through for one reason or another. Basically, they swung for the fences and popped out with Mike Williams.
Roman Wilson seemed to have an inauspicious spring but started turning heads early in training camp. Unfortunately for him, that’s the only part of training camp he got. In the fourth practice, the first in pads, he went down with an ankle injury. He missed all of the preseason and barely got up and running to practice to start the regular season.
Even then, it took the Steelers weeks to get Wilson moving at full speed. They eventually activated him for one game, and he promptly injured his hamstring. Even in that one game, he played five snaps, running one route, seeing no targets.
After his hamstring injury, the Steelers eventually placed Roman Wilson on IR. We really don’t know how severe it was, but they were in no rush to bring him back. It seemed fairly early that they were resigned to allowing him a redshirt year.
Why was that, though, exactly? Why were they not more eager to get some type of look at him? Did they feel he was that far away from being ready to contribute that they just let it go? There have been some reports that inferred as much about how the Steelers felt about the limited work they got out of Roman Wilson. But that is far from anything substantial to go on. And all that’s left is what comes next. Can Wilson emerge as the Steelers’ third receiver in 2025, and is that his ceiling?
The Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves at home, the inevitable result of another early playoff exit. This is a repeated pattern for the organization, with no clear end in sight. As the Steelers conduct their own exit meetings, we will go down the roster conducting our own. Who should stay, and who should go, and how? Who should expect a bigger role next season, and who might deserve a new contract? We’ll explore those questions and more in these articles, part of an annual series.
