Mike Tomlin confirms suspicion surrounding highly anticipated Steelers rookie who barely played for Pittsburgh in 2024
The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Roman Wilson, hoping that he could be an instant contributor to the WR corps last season. Instead, his year quickly became derailed by an ankle injury, then a hamstring injury, and he was of little use to the Steelers' offense. But many speculated that Wilson was healthy enough to return at […]
The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Roman Wilson, hoping that he could be an instant contributor to the WR corps last season.
Instead, his year quickly became derailed by an ankle injury, then a hamstring injury, and he was of little use to the Steelers' offense.
But many speculated that Wilson was healthy enough to return at some point, yet the Steelers kept him on the shelf.
Well, Mike Tomlin admitted as much…
Roman Wilson didn't have football readiness in 2024
"He was healthy, but healthy and football readiness were two different things to be quite honest with you. When you're coming back from injury, you're essentially getting on a moving train is the analogy that I like to use. We talk about a guy that had very little NFL experience. He was healthy at the end of the year. 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…
"We're expecting really good things for him in his second year. I think that's a reasonable expectation. I think from time to time guys get faced with injury and it derails their start, but by no means do we feel like it's going to define his career. Calvin Austin is an example of that. Calvin missed a significant portion of his rookie year, similar to Roman. Over the last two years he's gone on to move away from that and be a real positive contributor to our efforts. We expect similar things from Roman…
Life in the NFL is never easy. But that is only emphasized when you're a rookie. Add on that fact that Wilson dealt with injuries, and jumping on the moving train that is the NFL season (to use Tomlin's analogy) was never in the cards for him.
It aligns with what we heard from the Steelers team website, in a damning report that stated the staff just didn't have much confidence in Roman even when he was healthy…
My understanding of the situation is that at no point was there a legitimate level of confidence that Roman Wilson understood the offense and his responsibilities within it to the degree that would allow him to execute it at game speed during the stretch run of an NFL regular season.
– Bob Labriola, Steelers.Com
But 2025 is a new year, and the Steelers hope that Wilson can be the player they drafted him to be.
