Despite an impressive showing throughout the preseason, it doesn’t appear wide receiver Roman Wilson is firmly in the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ plans at the moment.
While appearing on 93.7 The Fan, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo stated that the Steelers will likely keep on trucking with their current group of skill position starters and thus won’t feature Wilson heavily within the offense.
“It just seems like they’re gonna ride with [DK] Metcalf and [Calvin] Austin [III]”Fittipaldo said, for Steelers Depot’s Matthew Marczi. “Roman Wilson’s probably not gonna be a big part of it. They’re gonna be focused on the two starting wideouts, Jonnu Smith and Pat Freiermuth. And until there’s an injury, I just don’t see how Roman Wilson is a big factor in this offense.
“He had a nice camp and everything, but the preseason is the preseason. For whatever reason, whether it’s playing time or chemistry with [Aaron] Rodgers, he just doesn’t seem to be a big part of things at this point.”
Though Pittsburgh currently has just five receivers on its 53-man roster, Wilson has played just 41 offensive snaps through the first three games of the season. Over that span, he’s hauled in one pass for seven yards on two targets.
Wilson has logged more reps than both Scotty Miller and Ben Skowronek, which is somewhat of a silver lining, but that’s still not saying much. As Fittipaldo mentioned, the presence of Smith and Freiermuth, and even Jaylen Warren’s involvement in the passing game, have lowered the amount of looks the 2024 third-round pick has gotten thus far.
After a lost rookie season in which he saw the field for just five snaps while dealing with ankle and hamstring injuries in addition to struggling to ingratiate himself when healthy, there was some hope that Wilson had turned a corner and would make an impact at some level this year.
He had a bit of a slow start to training camp, with Rodgers stating it was his goal to get Wilson “out of his head”, but the 24-year-old showed out in the preseason to the tune of 96 yards and a touchdown on four catches.
Wilson hasn’t been able to carry over that production into the regular season, though, and it’s unclear when or if he’ll get a chance to do so.
