The Pittsburgh Steelers had high hopes for rookie WR Roman Wilson in 2024.
But just a week into training camp, an ankle injury forced him to miss the start of the season, before a hamstring injury put him on the mend for the remainder of the season.
Except, it seems that Wilson didn't return because of something unrelated to his hamstring injury...
Roman Wilson reportedly didn't know Steelers playbook
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
The report has some legs when you think back to some of Mike Tomlin's comments regarding the rookie pass catcher. Even when he returned from the ankle injury, Tomlin stressed that Wilson's football readiness needed to reach another level before he was thrown into the proverbial NFL fire.
"He missed some practice time because of the hammy and as we've talked repeatedly in this setting, Roman needs to work for me to really consider him," said Mike Tomlin in the middle of last season. "His participation got compromised some last week and so really once it got compromised, I moved on."
Regardless of whether or not Wilson was ready, or knew the playbook, or was injured, the Steelers are not counting on him to be a significant contribution in 2025. If they were, comments from Khan and Co. wouldn't be so fixated on improving the pass-catching group via free agency, trades, and the NFL Draft.
In fairness to Wilson, 2025 will be essentially his rookie season should he be able to stay healthy. There is no reason to believe he can't be a suitable WR #3-4 in a strong rotation.
It shouldn't be forgotten that he was a chain mover with 4.3 speed during his time at Michigan and had a strong pre-draft process.
Pittsburgh also has a history of more hits than misses at the WR position, so I wouldn't give up hope just yet.
