Replacing Martavis Bryant won’t be as difficult as some might assume
During the 2018 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers made a move that was already speculated for weeks prior to the event. The team parted ways with wide receiver Martavis Bryant, trading him to the Oakland Raiders in exchange for a third-round draft pick.
The move, which was made during the first night of the draft, was met with criticism. Outside of Antonio Brown and second-year receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, the once stacked receiver depth chart looked less appealing.
However, there’s quite a bit of optimism to be had from moving Martavis in the final year of his rookie contract. It wasn’t likely that he would be returning to the Steelers in 2019 when the once-explosive receiver would become an unrestricted free agent.
lol that’s Sammie coates replacement not minds take it how you want to I am back.
— Martavis Bryant (@ThaBestUNO) April 29, 2017
Then there’s also the lack of his “explosiveness” during a 2017 season where the maligned player had a slow start, and some of his lowest stats in his career while he fought his way back from a year-long suspension to once again take the field. That path was met with a social media battle between Bryant and then-teammate Sammie Coates (over Smith-Schuster being drafted and whose “replacement” he was) as well as ranting which surfaced about Bryant being unhappy about playing time and his role in the offense.
When the latter surfaced, so did the talks of Bryant wanting to be traded. He would get his wish, and Steelers Nation should take notice: the team will be better off for it. Gone are the distractions of failed drug tests, suspensions, and those social media rants. Pittsburgh also has more than just Brown and Smith-Schuster under contract beyond 2018 too: something that wasn’t a “thing” prior the draft.
Yet, the one thing I hear more than anything else is “How will the Steelers replace Bryant?”
Well, the short answer is that they already have… a long time ago.
Yes, I’m well aware that Bryant caught 8 touchdowns in his rookie season. He looked explosive and on the verge of being another “WR1” next to AB. He followed up a 26 reception 549-yard rookie season with 50 catches for 765 yards. He added 6 touchdowns while participating in one more game than his first year (10 games to 11). But, he was also missing for five games during his sophomore season due to a four-game suspension to start the season and then an injury which kept him off of the field until the sixth game of the 2015 season.
Over that period of time, as well as the entire 2016 season (which Bryant missed due to a full-year suspension) the team had to make due with other players filling the speedy, tall target’s snaps. Of course, the 2016 season ended with the Steelers losing the Patriots in the AFC Championship game, a matchup where even Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger felt the moment may have been “too big” for the guys he was throwing the ball too.
There were missed opportunities whether we didn’t execute well enough, whether plays weren’t made by me or other guys. At times it felt like maybe it was too big for some of the young guys.
We talk about how sometimes it’s just one play here, one play there. Tonight we didn’t make those plays. Was [the moment] too big? I don’t know. We need to make every single play in a game like this, in a moment like this.
Roethlisberger may have been correct, but the fact remains that the Steelers have remained a winning football team with a productive offense despite not having Bryant on the field. However, replacing Martavis Bryant won’t be as difficult as some might assume because of those learning curves, and a few other reasons, as it was thought to be when the 2016 season ended.
The main reason his departure won’t be too harsh is that he never was the “WR1” on the team. That job belongs to Antonio Brown, who has more receptions and yards in a five-year span than any player in the history of the National Football League. Brown’s loss would be far more detrimental to the team (obviously).
JuJu Smith-Schuster’s play is another obvious reason. JuJu led all rookie receivers in yards last season with 917. He added 7 touchdowns and is poised to break the century mark if he plays all sixteen games in 2018.
JuJu’s emergence certainly made Bryant expendable, but Bryant still had opportunities he couldn’t capitalize on. Before he was benched in Week 8 for his comments about playing time, Martavis had played 60% or better of the offensive snaps through the first quarter of the season. In Weeks 6 and 7, his numbers dipped closer to 50% as JuJu and Eli Rogers received more playing time (which was the cause of Bryant’s complaints).
Rogers still remains unsigned while recovering from an injury sustained in the Divisional Round loss to the Jaguars, but with two potential 1,000 yard receivers (Brown and Smith-Schuster) in the stable, Bryant’s 50 catches and 603 yards shouldn’t be difficult to disperse to others such as second-year rookie receiver James Washington or tight ends Vance McDonald and Jesse James.
McDonald only had 14 receptions in 2017 as he struggled to stay healthy, but his potential was realized in a ten-catch, 112-yard performance in the playoffs.
James caught 43 passes for 372 yards and 3 touchdowns and was denied being a folk hero when his “Jesse Caught It” game-winning touchdown was taken away against the Patriots.
Add in a few other receivers and Le’Veon Bell (85 receptions in 2017) signing his franchise tag and returning to the team, and Bryant’s fourth-best team effort in 2017 may not be missed as much as others may believe. In fact, it could allow for a player like McDonald or Washington to flourish by getting a potential distraction out of the way as Bryant would be working on “getting paid” in 2019. (Which, by the way, I have no problem with… but the team already has one of those distractions currently and is better off with less of them, than more of them!)
That should be good news for Steelers Nation as they build their roster for another Super Bowl run this season.
