Steelers WR Roman Wilson's long wait is almost over

New York Times

6 days ago

Roman Wilson never knew how long he'd have to wait.
At 5 o'clock. each morning, he woke up on Maui, the Hawaiian island where he was born and raised. After packing his book bag with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Wilson jumped on a bus to the airport, hoping to catch the 6:30 a.m. flight to the island of Oahu to attend Saint Louis School, a high school football powerhouse in Honolulu that has produced numerous college and pro players, including Tua Tagovailoa, Marcus Mariota, and Nate and Nick Herbig.
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To make the journey possible, Wilson's mother, Colleen Colegrove, worked three different jobs, and his father, Jeffrey Wilson, got a job with Hawaiian Airlines so that his son could fly for free. But the perk came with a catch.
'Those were crazy times,' Wilson said. 'I used to fly standby, so you just get a leftover seat. It was never really guaranteed for me to get on a flight. Sometimes, I would get to school late, or I'd get home really late.'
After a full day of school and football practice, Wilson repeated the same journey in reverse. Back on a bus to the airport. More time waiting for an extra seat.
One day during his freshman year, Wilson arrived at the airport after school and practice. The first flight? Full. He waited 30 minutes for the next. Full again. Thirty more minutes. Same thing. Six hours later, the 15-year-old was still sitting in the airport, eating peanut butter and jelly and hoping for his name to get called.
'That was terrible,' said Wilson, who to this day still hates peanut butter and jelly.
The long, uncertain commute required patience and sacrifice. But as an undersized receiver from a state not known for producing skill position players, Wilson did what was required — even if unconventional — to put himself on college radars and get his NFL dreams airborne.
'I never really questioned it,' Wilson said. 'It was just something I wanted to do and was willing to do. I just did it.'
That commitment paid off when the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Wilson in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft. However, that familiar feeling of uncertainty returned last season. During the first padded practice of training camp, a defender rolled up on Wilson's ankle. Just as his ankle neared full strength and he began to earn the trust of the coaching staff, he tweaked his hamstring. A rookie season that began full of hope and expectation instead became essentially a redshirt year, testing Wilson's patience and will.
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'I don't want to think too much about last year,' Wilson said, clearly eager to move forward. 'But I definitely learned a lot, and it definitely helped to shape who I am this upcoming season.'
Before we look ahead, let's look back at Wilson's journey to the NFL and why those close to him believe he's built to thrive.
After Wilson's six-hour wait on standby, he and his family decided the island-to-island flight routine wasn't working and began looking for another solution.
For a while, he bounced among three different families living on Oahu. Eventually, Wilson's father got a small studio apartment on Oahu. The investments in Wilson's future began to pay off during his junior season. He emerged as Saint Louis' top receiving threat, racking up yards in bunches. He tallied 32 catches for 803 yards (25.1 yards per reception) and seven touchdowns during an 11-0 state championship run.
Wilson's on-field production spoke for itself, but many recruiters overlooked him because of his slight frame. Listed at 5-11 now, Wilson was a few inches shorter and only about 170 pounds in high school. As a result, he received only modest interest from a handful of schools, including Hawaii, Cal and some smaller programs.
Although Wilson's size made him easy to pass up, speed was in his DNA. His mother was a standout cross-country and track athlete at St. Ignace High in Michigan. In the mid-1980s, she set several state records. Her 26.2-second 200-meter dash remains among the 15 fastest times in the state record book nearly four decades later.
To maximize his physical gifts, Wilson began working in sixth grade with a speed coach, David Kamalani, a Nike master trainer who has helped develop more than 200 Division I athletes. At first, the precise route running didn't come naturally.
'(Wilson) kind of had two left feet,' Kamalani said over the phone. 'We were trying to perfect the movements, and (taking) direct steps took a little bit.'
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For years, they trained together at public parks and at the fire station where Kamalani worked. Even after Wilson found more permanent housing on Oahu, he'd reach out to his speed coach when he was back home on Maui.
'He would be the one to call me and say, 'Hey, Coach, can we train?'' Kamalani remembers. 'That is (a) big one for me. If you want it, I want to see how much you do want it. … He was really one of the hardest-working athletes that I've trained. He always sought out, 'What else can I do?''
Wilson was still struggling to get the attention of college coaches ahead of his senior high school season when, in May 2019, he attended Nike's The Opening regional in Oakland, Cal., a premier showcase event. There he ran a laser-timed 4.37 40, then finished the camp with the top Nike SPARQ score of 124.59.
Wilson wasn't invited to the national event and left the camp disappointed, again hopping on a flight back home. When he landed, his phone was full of messages.
'That's when I kind of blew up a little bit in my recruiting process,' Wilson said. 'After that, I started getting (interest from) Oregon, Michigan, a lot of Big Ten, a lot of Pac-12.'
During his senior season, Wilson's recruiting continued to ramp up as he became a problem for opposing defenses. The speedy athlete racked up 61 catches for 1,025 yards and 11 touchdowns, providing the primary receiving threat for Saint Louis during a second consecutive undefeated season. On the biggest stage, he produced one of his best games, tallying eight catches for 171 yards, including an 86-yard touchdown, to win the 2019 state title.
Be nice…🥴 pic.twitter.com/Irgiqdef19
— Roman Wilson (@Trilllroman) December 22, 2019
That spring at the state track meet, Wilson stood atop the podium as the gold medalist in the 100 meters with a time of 10.68 seconds, just 0.05 seconds shy of the state record. He also anchored the 4×100 relay, which set a state-meet record of 41.54.
The on-field production and track caliber speed gave Wilson his choice of more than 25 Division I college football programs. He ultimately committed to Jim Harbaugh and Michigan, returning to the state where his mother made a name for herself.
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The run-heavy Wolverines offense was starkly different from the wide-open passing game at Saint Louis. It required receivers to contribute without the football, which turned out to be a blessing that rounded out Wilson's skill set.
'I was barely 170 at the time,' Wilson said. 'So learning how to play physical football as a freshman at Michigan was different for me. It was also one of the reasons I went there, because it helped me evolve into a more full-fledged player.'
Working out of the slot in the pro-style offense, Wilson became a menace between the numbers, attacking defenses with slants and crossers. During Michigan's 2023 national championship run, he led the team with 48 catches, 789 yards and 12 touchdowns.
As his game reached a new high, his draft stock soared.
'He's got a lot on his shoulders, because he's always doing it for more than just himself,' Kamalani said. 'Coming from an island, being the size that he is, he gives high hopes for a lot of other athletes in his circumstance.'
Under the Mobile, Ala., sunshine at the 2024 Senior Bowl, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin paced along the practice field. The coach, who loves to test players' mental makeup as much as their physical ability, had a challenge in mind. Tomlin told Toledo defensive back Quinyon Mitchell (an eventual first-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles) to take every rep head-to-head against Wilson, pitting two of the best players at their positions against each other at the showcase event.
Michigan WR Roman Wilson: One of the most reliable pass-catchers in the country.
In mobile at 186 pounds this week. pic.twitter.com/FzPdwImkLa
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) January 30, 2024
The Steelers saw what they wanted. In the third round, with the 84th pick, they selected the Michigan product.
'The reason they took me is they expect me to come in and play,' Wilson said on a conference call after being picked. 'That's exactly what I'm going to do.'
Unfortunately for Wilson, the path to playing time was longer than anticipated. Early in the first padded practice of training camp, Wilson took a jet sweep, and a defender rolled up on his ankle.
Rookie WR Roman Wilson appeared to be injured on a jet sweep during seven shots. He left practice on a cart. pic.twitter.com/C1n5easDtT
— Mike DeFabo (@MikeDeFabo) July 30, 2024
It took until Week 6 against the Las Vegas Raiders for Wilson to make his debut. Even then, he played just five offensive snaps and didn't have a catch. That week at practice, he endured another setback when he injured his hamstring. After aggravating the injury a few weeks later, Wilson was placed on injured reserve for most of the second half of the season. By the time he was healthy enough to contribute, he had missed too much time.
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'He was healthy (at the end of the year), but health and football readiness are two different things, to be quite honest with you,' Tomlin said at NFL league meetings in Florida in March. 'When you're coming back from injury, man, you're essentially getting on a moving train.
'But we're expecting really good things for him in the second year. I think that's a reasonable expectation. I think from time to time, guys get faced with an injury and it derails their start, but by no means do we feel like it's going to define his career.'
This offseason, Wilson said he's worked to take care of his body 'at an elite level,' hoping to avoid similar season-altering injuries. Early during OTAs, he's been emphasizing his route indicators, becoming more detailed in and out of his breaks and polishing his blocking technique.
Because Wilson hasn't been able to display his talent on the field, he's one of the more intriguing, unknown commodities on the Steelers' roster. He also might have the best opportunity to swing the Steelers' season one way or the other.
When general manager Omar Khan traded George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys, he reopened an enormous void on the depth chart behind DK Metcalf. If Wilson is again slow to contribute, the Steelers might continue to have questions about who catches the ball other than Metcalf. But if Wilson can get up to speed quickly and prove himself as a reliable weapon, a position group that looks thin might turn out to be deeper than expected.
'My goals for the season are to get better every single day,' Wilson said. 'Treat every day like it's game day, every practice like it's game day. Come prepared with questions to ask coaches after practice. Just be mentally, physically locked in every single day and just give them my all. Give it all I got every single day so I can get better the next day and be ready for whenever my time is.'
After weathering plenty of turbulence to reach this point, Wilson's long wait is almost over.