Roman Wilson has had a rough first two years in the NFL. The Pittsburgh Steelers spent a third-round pick on him in 2024, but he’s only caught 12 passes in two seasons. He missed most of his first year due to injuries, but even when he was healthy last year, he struggled, even getting benched near the end of the year.

While Aaron Rodgers has praised Wilson a lot this offseason, he also recently critiqued the wideout for making a “repeat mistake” in practice. Former NFL wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh took umbrage with Rodgers’ words.

“I don’t like that,” Houshmandzadeh said recently on the Speakeasy podcast. “Just say, ‘Bad throw. We weren’t on the same page.’ When you are that great of a player, you always take responsibility. Because when you take the responsibility, everybody on the offensive side of the ball knows that Roman Wilson made the mistake.

“You take the responsibility of it as a quarterback, as a leader. That’s what you do. I tell my son this. You never blame anybody else. It’s always your fault if you think you’re one of the better players. You don’t blame anybody else. That’s what I would’ve liked to hear him say. ‘That’s on me. We weren’t on the same page. We’ll get it corrected.’”

It’s important to note that most of what Rodgers said about Wilson was positive. He said a lot of nice things about the Michigan product, including noting that he looks better this year compared to last year. Rodgers wasn’t bashing Wilson.

However, Rodgers isn’t dumb. He noted in that same session that rookie Germie Bernard doesn’t make repeat mistakes. It feels like he could’ve been sending a message to Wilson.

It’s fair to question Rodgers doing that when talking to the media, though. Maybe he could’ve done things differently, like delivering the message to Wilson privately.

However, it’s unclear what the exact dynamic between them is. Perhaps Rodgers feels like simply telling Wilson about his mistakes isn’t working well enough, causing him to ratchet up the pressure by making public comments.

This is a big year for Wilson. The Steelers’ receiver room is more crowded, leaving fewer opportunities available. If Wilson struggles this season, then he could be in danger of not making Pittsburgh’s team next year.

Rodgers seems like he’s going to give Wilson plenty of chances to prove himself, though. He was one of the Wilson’s biggest supporters in training camp, targeting him early and often. Clearly, Rodgers hasn’t given up on Wilson.

It’s easy to focus on Rodgers calling Wilson out for a repeat mistake. However, it doesn’t seem like Wilson has lost his quarterback’s trust yet. Issues might start to pop up if that problem shows up during the regular season, but that’s why Rodgers made those comments. It’s okay if Wilson messes up in practice if he’s sharper during games. We’ll see how he responds to Rodgers’ message.