Pittsburgh Steelers 2024 third-round WR Roman Wilson played five snaps as a rookie. The fact that he suffered repeated injuries didn’t help matters, but he finished the season healthy. His lack of playing time complicates the Steelers’ assessment of their current wide receiver room and is a recurring topic. Bearing that in mind, HC Mike Tomlin addressed why Wilson didn’t play at the end of last season.
“He was healthy, but healthy and football readiness are two different things”, the Steelers head coach said Monday of Roman Wilson during the league owners meetings, via the team’s YouTube channel. “When you’re coming back from injury, you’re essentially getting on a moving train, is the analogy that I like to use. And we’re talking about a guy that had very little NFL experience”.
That’s all boilerplate talk from Tomlin, but the Steelers still opened Roman Wilson’s practice window late in the year. “He was healthy”, Tomlin admitted. “He was working extremely hard in practice. But a real avenue never presented itself, due to the misfortune of others or what have you, for him to contribute”.
With Wilson on IR, the Steelers had at wide receiver George Pickens, Calvin Austin III, Van Jefferson, Mike Williams, Ben Skowronek, and, sporadically, Scotty Miller. Jefferson and Williams are gone now, but they have since added DK Metcalf via trade.
Metcalf and Pickens, assuming they don’t trade the latter, are the obvious starters. The Steelers hope Roman Wilson competes for that No. 3 role, with Austin likely in “pole position”. And despite their absence of opportunity to see much of him last year, Tomlin remains optimistic.
“We’re expecting really good things for [Roman Wilson] in his second year”, Tomlin said. “From time to time, guys get faced with injury, and it derails their start. But by no means do we feel like it’s gonna define his career”.
Tomlin then likened Wilson missing most of his rookie season to another Steelers receiver, Calvin Austin. Austin missed all of his rookie year, but he has contributed meaningfully the past two years. And Wilson arguably has higher upside, with less speed but more height and a more well-rounded game. “We expect similar things” from Wilson after his injury, Tomlin said.
On the first day of the Steelers’ padded practices in training camp, Roman Wilson injured his ankle. He missed all of the preseason, and the injury even lingered early into the regular season. Weeks later, he dressed for one game before injuring his hamstring.
That injury resulted in the Steelers putting Wilson on IR, where he remained for the rest of the year. They knew it wasn’t a season-ending injury from a physical standpoint, but it was from that “football readiness” perspective Tomlin referenced.
Had they dealt with some kind of injury, there likely would have been an opportunity for the Steelers to get Roman Wilson on the field and get a quick look at him before his rookie season was over. That never happened, but 2024 is in the past now. And Mike Tomlin is moving forward with expectations remaining high for his young wide receiver.
