Steelers Draft Michigan WR Roman Wilson in Third Round

The Pittsburgh Steelers used their third straight pick on an offensive player, landing Michigan wide receiver Roman Wilson with the 84th pick in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft on Friday.

The Steelers used their first two picks on offensive lineman, landing tackle Troy Fautanu from Washington in the first round and center Zach Frazier from West Virginia in the second round.

With Wilson, they cleared up the other big need on their depth chart, helping to replace departures from Diontae Johnson and Allen Robinson II.

Wilson is somewhat undersized, checking in at 5-foot-10 3/4 and 185 pounds, but showed excellent athleticism in pre-draft testing. He ran a 4.39-second 40-yard dash, a 4.07-second shuttle and 6.89-second three-cone drill at the 2024 NFL Combine, resulting in an 8.59 RAS out of 10.

Wilson played both inside and outside at Michigan, spending 91% of his time in the slot as a junior in 2022 and 65.5% of his time in the slot last season, per Pro Football Focus.

Inside or out, he was Michigan’s most productive receiver this season. Wilson led the Wolverines in catches (48), yards (789) and touchdowns (12), as the clear top target in a very limited passing attack.

At the 2024 Senior Bowl, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin showed special interest in Wilson, matching him for drills against Toledo cornerback Quinyon Mitchell, who was taken in the first round by the Philadelphia Eagles, and getting the best of him.

Hello, Roman Wilson pic.twitter.com/kFZjMAF6YH

— Nick Farabaugh (@FarabaughFB) January 31, 2024

The Steelers also sent Tomlin, Omar Khan and wide receivers coach Zach Azzani to the Michigan pro day. 

Wilson was the No. 51 player on the consensus NFL Mock Draft Database big board, representing another draft slide that the Steelers picked up.

A native of Honolulu, Hawaii, Wilson attended the same high school as fellow Steelers Nick and Nate Herbig,