Roman Wilson stayed long after practice at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, chasing balls from JUGS machines and catching them while reaching right, reaching behind him, dropping to one knee, the other knee and even sitting down. It was the kind of extra work that fits the moment for a 24-year-old entering his third NFL season, because the Steelers need to know whether he can turn offseason praise into a real job in the receiver rotation.
That question matters now because Wilson is trying to climb in a rebuilt wideout room and because the Steelers expect to use a lot of 11 personnel in Mike McCarthy’s offense. McCarthy said Wilson has been there from Day 1 and was one of the first players to reach out and ask what the expectation was, how he fit at X, F and Z. The coach added that Wilson has had a great offseason and simply needs to keep doing what he is doing, keep showing up and keep working his tail off because there is a lot there to work with.
Wilson sounded encouraged by the change around him. “It’s been very exciting,” he said. “Mike McCarthy is a great coach. I love everything he’s done here so far. I love his offense. I love him. I love the guys he’s brought in. It’s been great.” For a receiver trying to move from promise to production, that matters. The Steelers are not looking for a cameo. They need depth that can function like starting talent, especially with the offense expected to lean on three-receiver sets.
Wilson’s path has not been smooth. As a rookie, he suffered a high-ankle sprain after a hip-drop tackle, then dealt with another injury that eventually shut him down. The repeated setbacks turned his first year into a redshirt season. Last year brought more signs of life, but not enough to lock down a role: he caught 21 passes for 166 yards and two touchdowns in the middle of the season before missed connections with Aaron Rodgers helped push him down the depth chart.
That slide got steeper late in the year. In four of the final five games, the coaching staff moved Wilson down the pecking order, and he was leapfrogged by Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Adam Thielen. It happened in one of the league’s least receiver-friendly offenses, where the third wideout was often just a rotational piece. Even so, Wilson showed enough flashes that the Steelers have not walked away from him.
They have reasons to keep pressing. The team rebuilt the receiver depth chart, added Germie Bernard in the draft and still spent part of last season sorting out the group behind DK Metcalf. Wilson’s next step is simple to say and hard to earn: keep doing the work in practice and make it impossible to take him off the field. If he does, the Steelers may have a real answer in a spot they need to stabilize.
