3 ways the Steelers could handle Martavis Bryant
Unless you live under a rock, you’ve known that Martavis Bryant has been in the news lately. The wide receiver is reportedly unhappy with his situation in Pittsburgh and the drama only seems to worsen by the day.
It all started following the Chiefs game where rumors of Bryant requesting a trade surfaced. Bryant denied these claims and as that week progressed things seemed to calm down. However, things reignited following the Bengals game when Bryant took a shot at JuJu Smith-Schuster on Instagram. The drama continued from there when reporter Josina Anderson wrote that Bryant stated that he wants more involved with this offense or else he will leave the team.
That’s the abridged version of the drama, and yes, it’s all ridiculous.
Many fans and media persons are calling for head coach Mike Tomlin to take action here. Many believe Bryant’s drama has the potential to become a distraction for the team and that it’s time for Tomlin to intervene. The question is, what should he do?
For me, there are three primary options for how Tomlin can handle Martavis Bryant.
Option 1: Do nothing
While many fans are clamoring for the Steelers to take action, it’s certainly possible that the team listens to the magic conch and simply does nothing. The entire situation could be handled behind closed doors and without any media interference. Maybe Tomlin or Ben Roethlisberger has a nice chat with Bryant to clear the air.
Despite all this drama starting up last week none of it seemed to translate over to the field. Martavis Bryant played 36 snaps on offense, which is 52% of the total snaps. Despite being outproduced by JuJu Smith-Schuster, Bryant actually played more snaps than the rookie wide receiver. Bryant also flashed as a run blocker, showing that he is still willing to help the team win.
It’s entirely feasible that the rest of the season continues in that fashion, with Bryant continuing to play roughly 50% of the offensive snaps and getting his fair share of opportunities. Maybe he improves, maybe he doesn’t, but in this scenario, all the drama blows over.
Option 2: Bench him
One of the most common discipline methods across the NFL is simple: benching.
We’ve seen it applied to players after they are late to a meeting, fumble the ball, or muff a punt (see Eli Rogers). This could be the strategy Tomlin uses with Martavis Bryant. The tricky thing with benching players is that in theory there are two different ways a player could react to it.
On one hand, the player could accept the punishment and use it as motivation to improve. On the other hand, it could only worsen a players attitude and make them bitter. Considering what we’ve seen of Bryant’s attitude so far, the latter is a scarily realistic possibility.
Benching Bryant for a single game is a discipline method certainly worth considering for Tomlin in order to hit home the message that the team comes first.
Option 3: Trade him
While many are hoping that the Steelers send Bryant packing, Tomlin has made it abundantly clear that he will not be available for trade.
Trading him would be a bad idea anyway. We’re talking about a wide receiver who has never proven to be consistent, was suspended for an entire season, and has done little this year other than a few nice catches. With Bryant’s stock so low the Steelers would be looking at no better than a sixth or seventh round pick for a player they’ve invested a lot of resources in.
Instead, it’s possible that the Steelers would want to trade Bryant in the offseason.
There would surely be many wide receiver-needy teams that would be more than happy to take Bryant despite all of his drama. As we’ve seen countless times in the NFL, teams are willing to put up with drama in exchange for talent. By then Bryan would (ideally) have some good highlights from the 2017 season to boost his value as well.
Pending on how the rest of the season goes for Bryant, and if he’s able to fix his attitude problem, dealing Bryant in the offseason is feasible.
Update:
Mike Tomlin decided to go with Option 2 for the time being:
Martavis Bryant said steelers Tomlin told him he won't play Sunday
— Ed Bouchette (@EdBouchette) October 25, 2017
