Steelers Sign WR Roman Wilson to Rookie Contract

The Pittsburgh Steelers officially agreed to terms with wide receiver Roman Wilson on a rookie contract, according to the team.

The Steelers drafted the former Michigan Wolverine with the 84th overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft.

While the exact details of Wilson’s contract are not available yet, Over The Cap estimated that the four-year deal in that slot would be worth around $5.75 million with a signing bonus of $998,300. The Over The Cap team also projected that Wilson will cost $1.04 million against the Steelers’ cap space in 2024.

Roman Wilson had already developed a connection with head coach Mike Tomlin prior to being drafted as Tomlin challenged Wilson at the Senior Bowl. In this challenge, Tomlin asked Wilson to go at top cornerback prospect Quinyon Mitchell for the duration of practice and he did just that as he won the day’s worth of reps against Mitchell.

Additionally, the trio of Tomlin, general manager Omar Khan and wide receivers coach Zach Azzani traveled to Michigan’s Pro-Day to watch Wilson compete.

At Michigan, Wilson played as both an inside and an outside receiver. As a junior in 2022, Wilson spent 91% of his time in the slot but that decreased to just 65.5% last season, per Pro Football Focus.

Wherever he lined up, he was Michigan’s most productive receiver last season as he led the Wolverines in catches (48), yards (789) and touchdowns (12). All of these numbers came in a very limited passing attack as the Wolverines were more known to run the ball.

Wilson comes to Pittsburgh as probably the team’s second most talented player at the position behind only George Pickens. While he is above everybody else in terms of talent, Wilson is projected to be a slot receiver in the NFL. This means that the Steelers still have a hole at their second outside receiver spot, unless they see a player such as Van Jefferson as the answer.

The Steelers history of drafting wide receivers is rich so even if the undersized Wilson mans just the slot position, the team is going to expect a lot from him, not only in the passing game but as a blocker in the run-game as well.