The Pittsburgh Steelers decided to make rookie wide receiver Roman Wilson inactive in Week 3 against the Los Angeles Chargers despite the fact that Wilson was able to log two full practices to close out the week before not carrying a designation.
The choice was odd at the time, as the Steelers only dressed four wide receivers for the game. When asked about Wilson not dressing, head coach Mike Tomlin said the team opted to carry an extra defensive lineman instead due to the anticipated battle in the run game Pittsburgh was going to face from the Chargers.
Tomlin was asked about Wilson once again on Tuesday and the Steelers head coach explained what the rookie has to do in order to be active.
"He's just gotta keep working," Tomlin said, per Steelers Depot. "It is very difficult to get on a moving train. All you've gotta do is look at Dean Lowry, for example. There's a veteran guy that missed a substantial amount of training camp and it was the third game before he got a hat, although he's been healthy for three weeks. And so that gets multiplied when you're talking about a guy that has no NFL experience like Roman. And so my advice to Roman is to keep working and take that opportunity when that door is left ajar and to be ready when it is."
The Steelers may have no choice but to dress Wilson in Week 4 after wide receiver Van Jefferson exited last week's game early with an eye injury that leaves his status up in the air for this Sunday.
How much Wilson is able to contribute remains to be seen, though. After all, he did miss a ton of practice time during the offseason and so far during the regular season because of his ankle injury.
Even still, the Steelers have got to get him going sooner rather than later with their shaky situation at the position.
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