Steelers Now
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers second-year wide receiver Roman Wilson made a careless play in Sunday’s win over the Indianapolis Colts when he tried to leap over a defender and fumbled, resulting in a Colts’ recovery.
It could’ve been a disaster with the Steelers holding onto a 27-17 lead with under four minutes remaining, but Joey Porter Jr. picked off Daniel Jones three plays later to seal the win.
Nevertheless, head coach Mike Tomlin was not pleased with Wilson’s reckless ball security.
“I think it’s been a steady improvement in terms of their quality of play. Particularly Roman of late,” Tomlin said at his weekly press conference Tuesday. “Other than that boneheaded lack of ball security late in the football game.”
Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith made it clear during his media availability on Thursday that the team is not giving up on Wilson after one bad play.
“Those are tough lessons to learn. Sometimes, adversity can be your best teacher. …. You don’t give up on guys. That’s trust.”
🚨Roman Wilson
Biggest bust in @steelers history. Get him out of the game #Fumbled pic.twitter.com/QRjO3kOnHt— Intrinsic (@intrinsicvalyou) November 2, 2025
Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has noticed big improvements from second-year receiver Roman Wilson. He had a feeling that the former Michigan Wolverine was going to have a big game in Week 8 against the Green Bay Packers.
Wilson had his first career touchdown reception in the loss to the Packers. He also had a 45-yard reception on the first drive.
“I told him last Wednesday, ‘It’s going to be your week this week,’ just kind of a feeling,” Rodgers said on Wednesday. “And then Thursday he had his best practice of the season. Even in that, there were still three or four real coachable moments. So, I told Ro, I’ve liked him since the first time we got to know each other out in Malibu, and I told him back then ‘I’m going to coach you to your potential and not to what I’m seeing.’ So, I’m going to hold him to a high standard, and I was really proud of him in the game for the couple of reaction plays that he made. We just need to see consistency from him.
“But it starts in practice, and I thought Thursday was a really good practice for him, and today he had another nice practice.”
Rodgers, who’s a self-described perfectionist, said he doesn’t like to throw to receivers who “I haven’t seen consistently make the plays I’m expecting him to make.” That’s why Wilson’s strides in practice gave him confidence.
“Every play is watched from practice, so it’s the attention to detail on the routes,” he said. “I think that’s sometimes lost. You might, even in a game situation, get so enamored with what a guy’s doing, who’s around the ball, getting targeted, but a lot of times things that happen in the succeeding weeks are because of things you’ve seen on film, on the backside...
