Second-year Steelers WR Roman Wilson spent his rookie season chronically injured, and he vowed to do something about that. While he didn’t specify how he attacked the offseason, he reportedly looked noticeably different on the first days of OTAs. How that translates to the field, and to his durability, time will well.
A small-framed wide receiver out of Michigan, the Steelers drafted Roman Wilson in the third round a year ago. While he has talent, his body deprived him of an opportunity to show it. After injuring his ankle on the first day of padded practices in training camp last year, he effectively disappeared. He ultimately played five snaps before going down with another injury. But 2025 is a new year, and he has a (somewhat) new build, apparently.
“I will say, today at OTAs, I thought that he looked a little more bulked-up than he did this time a year ago, and certainly during the season”, Brooke Pryor said of Roman Wilson on 93.7 The Fan yesterday. “I asked him if he had put on any weight. He said, no, he was playing at the same weight.
“He said others have noticed that his body has changed a little bit, but he didn’t necessarily say one way or another whether that was a concerted effort on his part”, she added of Wilson, noting she was far from the only person to note the differences in his body composition. “I did think that he looked a little bit more solid and more durable”.
Of course, we’re only through the first day of OTAs, so there is a long way to go. But there is no reason to believe Roman Wilson will struggle through chronic injuries during his Steelers career. He didn’t have that sort of issue in college. The problem with young players dealing with injuries is, for most of them, that’s their entire experience with them. Some are quick to earn the “injury prone” designation, like Lawrence Timmons. He later developed into an ironman type of player, hardly missing a snap.
It’s especially natural for second-year players to undergo significant physical transformations of body composition as they work with experienced, professional trainers and diet coaches. It could be that Wilson only made modest adjustments that yielded legitimate durability gains. Hell, I could probably use some of them right now.
Roman Wilson’s body isn’t the only thing undergoing a transformation this offseason, though. The Steelers made significant changes to their wide receiver room, in which Wilson could play a prominent role. While they traded for DK Metcalf, they later opted to trade George Pickens.
After failing to draft a wide receiver, that leaves the WR2 role open. Wilson could work his way into that role with a strong offseason, though not without competition. He will battle Calvin Austin III and veteran Robert Woods for snaps behind Metcalf.
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