Besides five snaps in one game of his rookie season, Roman Wilson has yet to see extended action in an NFL game as he enters his second year. A training camp injury robbed him of playing in the preseason last year, so this Saturday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars will be the first opportunity to see what he’s capable of outside of a practice setting.
Mike Tomlin outlined a plan for Wilson throughout the next three preseason games.
“I just expect to see similar things that I’ve seen out here. Continual get-better in playmaking,” Tomlin said via the Steelers’ YouTube. “He’s highly conditioned, I expect that to show in his play. We’re really focused on his offensive contributions this week. Next week we’re gonna infuse him more in special teams than we tentatively have planned this week, ’cause we just think it’s appropriate. He’s a young guy. Sometimes you’re thoughtful about what you ask them to master in this process in an effort to see the best of him in certain components of play.”
Until a few days ago, Wilson was not having a very good training camp. He was out of sync with QB Aaron Rodgers and wasn’t making many plays. Through the first nine practices, our Alex Kozora charted him for six receptions on 11 targets for 62 yards. A couple of those incompletions were bad misses that suggested he may have run the wrong route.
He stepped up his performance big-time this week after Wilson was listed as a third-string receiver behind Scotty Miller and Robert Woods. He stacked two of his best practices in back-to-back days on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Tomlin is being cautious about adding too much to his plate. I imagine nerves are setting in for Wilson as he prepares for his first significant playing time, and he really needs to stand out in a positive way to start establishing a role for himself on offense. Aaron Rodgers recently implied he cares too much and said his talent will shine if he can get out of his own head.
They have been using Wilson in a gunner role on the punt coverage unit of special teams. He has also been fielding kickoffs in practice. We can expect to see more of that moving forward in games two and three of the preseason.
Expect Roman Wilson to play—a lot—on Saturday against the Jaguars.
