Steelers quietly made a roster move on Sunday that signals the beginning of the end for highly anticipated wide receiver
Mike Tomlin just confirmed that Roman Wilson is in the doghouse.
The Pittsburgh Steelers had a busy week in the WR room. After signing Adam Thielen, they finally promoted Marquez Valdes-Scantling from the practice squad. That told you right there that someone in the WR room would be inactive.
The obvious name was Scotty Miller. Between a broken finger and usage primarily on special teams, Miller just hasn’t been seen on offense very much. He has just one reception for nine yards. Yet, Mike Tomlin gave him a helmet over Roman Wilson with no prior notice, and that speaks volumes.
Roman Wilson’s days in Pittsburgh may be numbered
Part of the reason that the Steelers didn’t make any moves after trading George Pickens, and again at the deadline, was that they believed Wilson could help them. They believed internally that he could blossom into a significant starter for the team. The goal was to take it slow.
As sources told A to Z Sports earlier this season, the Steelers are (or perhaps were) treating this season as if it were Wilson’s rookie year, since his inaugural campaign was plagued by injury. However, when you take a player, who in all honesty was one of the few people winning on the perimeter, and make him inactive, it speaks volumes.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the week after Aaron Rodgers calls out his pass catchers for missing routes and meetings, the Steelers elevate his old teammate and sign another veteran to give him a familiar face. And remember, Rodgers had a telling quote about Wilson during training camp. One that raised a lot of eyebrows.
“I got to get [Wilson] out of his head a little bit,” Rodgers said via the Pittsburgh Steelers YouTube channel back in August. “I think he’s such a good kid. He cares so much about whether it’s my approval or if he’s doing it right.
“He’s just got to trust himself because he’s so damn talented. The more that he can play free and not think out there, the better he’s going to play. The more he can just trust what he’s got and just go out and react, the better he’s going to play.”
Wilson was open in back-to-back games when Mason Rudolph and Rodgers missed him on a go route where he clearly had the corner beat on. In an offense that often throws short of the sticks, Wilson has averaged nearly 14 yards per catch.
But with the team doing just fine without him and DK Metcalf exploding for his best game yet as a Steeler against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, Tomlin may have just cemented Wilson’s fate with the Steelers.
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