Promising Steelers Rookie WR Returns to Practice
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers third-round draft pick Roman Wilson (hamstring) has returned to practice, the team announced on Tuesday.
Wilson will have 21 days to practice while he remains on the injured reserve list. After 21 days, the Steelers must reinstate him to the 53-man roster, or he will have to stay on IR for the remainder of the season. Of course, the Steelers may not have many more than 21 days left in their season.
It’s been a lost rookie season for Wilson, as he’s dealt with a pair of injuries. The only game that he appeared in was the Week 6 contest against the Las Vegas Raiders. He played just five snaps and recorded no stats.
Wilson suffered a high ankle sprain on the third day of training camp, with that injury costing him the entire rest of camp, all of the preseason, and the first five weeks of his rookie season.
The week after he finally got into the game, Wilson suffered a minor hamstring injury in practice that caused him to miss the team’s Week 7 game against the New York Jets.
“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,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said during his Tuesday press conference when asked why Wilson was inactive for the Jets game. “His participation got compromised some last week and so really once it got compromised, I moved on.”
The following week, Wilson aggravated that injury in practice and was placed on the injured reserve list before the Week 8 game against the New York Giants.
The Steelers drafted Roman Wilson with the 84th overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft.
Wilson enjoyed his best season ever in 2023. As he helped the Wolverines win a National Championship, Wilson caught a career-high 48 passes for 789 yards and 12 touchdowns. Each of those led the team in 2023.
Wilson earned second-team All-Big 10 honors following the season. In his collegiate career, Wilson appeared in 45 games and started 23 of them. He tallied 107 receptions, 1,707 receiving yards and 20 touchdowns.
Alan Saunders provided reporting from Pittsburgh.
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