It might not seem like much, but Roman Wilson has seen his role steadily increase within the Steelers’ offense lately. On Sunday, he saw a career-high 37 snaps, for example, even if he made just one catch. Even on the entire season, he has all of 12 catches in 10 games. But the coaches see it, and that’s why he’s on the field more and more.
“He’s a guy that’s getting better with exposure”, Mike Tomlin said of Wilson, via the Steelers’ website. “But that’s a reasonable expectation. He’s a second-year player. He’s getting more comfortable within the framework of what we ask him to do. I think the game is slowing down for him. I certainly don’t want to speak for him. But it’s evident in watching him play”.
Since Calvin Austin III’s injury earlier this season, Roman Wilson has steadily seen more work. He has played at least 15 snaps in six straight games, including four games with 29-plus snaps. Of course, it doesn’t be 30 snaps, because that would just be too neat and tidy, so 20 it is.
Wilson had just one catch on two targets for seven yards during the first month of the season. Since then, he has seen 15 targets, making 11 catches for 159 yards. He has caught two touchdowns, all over the past four games, even if both came in “garbage time”.
But the Steelers rank near the bottom 10 in passing yards this year, and are in the bottom 10 in attempts. This is just not a team that throws the football a lot, and they have DK Metcalf. They also throw the ball a lot to their running backs. The question is, how much of that is by design, and how much by necessity? Are there so few targets to the rest of their wide receivers, including Roman Wilson, simply because they haven’t merited that workload?
It would be fair to say that Roman Wilson hasn’t exactly “arrived”, but perhaps he’s on his way. The Steelers seem to be seeing elements of the player they hoped they were drafting in the third round last year. After essentially missing his rookie season, it’s been a slow build-up. But though it all, he has maintained his poise and professionalism and grinded.
Wilson has the highest success rate on targets out of everybody on the Steelers with more than three targets. Only Ben Skowronek and Connor Heyard have a higher success rate, but their sample size is too small to consider. He also has the highest catch percentage out of all the team’s wide receivers, but obviously falls well short of Spencer Anderson’s 100 percent.
But the next step is seeing what Roman Wilson’s playing time looks like for the next couple games. Is he going to continue to see this kind of workload, evidently ahead of Calvin Austin III? Was that a one-time thing based on the game plan, or is he moving up? Perhaps Tomlin’s comments suggest the latter, but we shall see. He still only drew two targets on Sunday.
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