LATROBE, PA (93.7 The Fan) –Roman Wilson got support from the most important piece of the Steelers offense this year. Aaron Rodgers told the second-year receiver to just start playing free.
“I got to get Ro out of his head a little bit,” Rodgers said Wednesday. “I think he’s such a good kid. He cares so much about whether it’s my approval or he’s doing it right. He’s just got to trust himself because he’s so damn talented.”
Wilson was a star for a national championship team, but with the Steelers he couldn’t get on the field despite being a third-round pick. His final year at Michigan, 25% of his receptions went for touchdowns. At 6’, he averaged 16.4 yards-per-catch with the final numbers being 48 receptions for 789 yards and 12 touchdowns. He had a touchdown against rivals Ohio State and Michigan State and one in the national semifinal against Alabama.
We’ve seen tentativeness and mistakes early in his NFL career. An ankle injury early in training camp last year really set his season down a bad path and he still hasn’t looked like the third-round impact receiver the Steelers thought they were getting.
“The more that he can play free and not think out there, the better he’s going to play,” Rodgers said. “The more he can just trust what he’s got and just go out and react, the better he’s going to play.”
Overall with the receiving corps Rodgers is pleased. They have a lot of conversations and he said Arthur Smith has done a nice job of allowing him at times to take over meetings and go through some of the film with the receivers.
“They all have position coaches, but as parents, sometimes you tell you kid a bunch of stuff and they only get it when someone else says it, you are over like ‘I’ve been saying this forever’,” Rodgers said. “That’s kinda how it is for a position coach sometimes where they tell them the right thing all the time, but it might not be until they hear it from me or hear it from Art (Arthur Smith) when it kicks in.”
“That the nature of life and our business. It’s good for me to speak up from time-to-time.”
Time down
We saw it the last five years with Ben Roethlisberger how he would get days off, typically during the season he wouldn’t practice on a Wednesday. They were saving his arm to make sure he was fresh for the entire season. So far in training camp, Rodgers has only had one day down.
“I love that one day off, thanks to Mike for that one,” Rodgers said with a smile.
In his 21st NFL season, he also noted the team basically had a day off when rain cancelled their practice last week and they just did some walk-through periods in the St. Vincent College gym.
“I feel good,” Rodgers said. “I’m not begging for off days, but anytime Mike wants to lighten my load, I won’t complain.”