Roman Wilson ‘Still Has A Lot Of Work Ahead Of Him’ To Be Game-Ready, Tomlin Says

The Pittsburgh Steelers added to their wide receiver room in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft with Roman Wilson, but they haven’t had the opportunity to debut their new weapon yet due to a training camp injury.

On the first day of padded practice, Wilson’s ankle was rolled up on. That held him out of the entire preseason. He started practicing over the last couple weeks, but he has yet to get a helmet on gameday. From the sound of it, it may still be a bit before he gets his long-awaited debut.

Steelers.com’s Bob Labriola posted his weekly interview with Mike Tomlin this morning, and he was asked what the challenges are in getting Wilson up to speed.

“There’s a lot, but I don’t want to overstate it, because you see young wideouts transition into the NFL and perform at a high level every year,” Tomlin said via Labriola. “Specifically as it pertains to Roman, he got hurt on the sixth play of the first practice (in pads) of training camp. And so there are some developmental things, there are some physical plays and conditioning and learning and things that go into his process that are not reflective of the overall process.

“Roman doesn’t have a whole lot of in-helmet experience to draw from. He’s healthy, but he still has a lot of work ahead of him in terms of being game ready.”

Wilson has spoken to the media after practice a couple times over the last two weeks, and believes he is ready to hit the ground running. He feels back to 100-percent health, and he is confident that he can contribute as soon as he gets his opportunity.

Had he been able to practice in pads for a week in training camp, or at least participated in one preseason game, it would have been a lot easier to get him back on the moving train. But his lack of padded practices makes it difficult to trust him in a live-NFL-football environment.

Tomlin discussed how excited he was to get Wilson back in the mix a couple weeks ago, but it sounds like it could be another week or two before Wilson starts to contribute. It is possible, because of some other injuries to guys like Jaylen Warren, Alex Highsmith, MyCole Pruitt, and others, that Wilson gets his first gameday helmet instead of being inactive. We will see 90 minutes before kickoff. Even if he gets a helmet, it seems unlikely that he will contribute in Week 4.