Martavis Bryant Continues to Be Star of Pittsburgh Steelers Offense

There wasn’t a whole lot that went right for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. Their 20-13 road loss to the New York Jets was a comedy of errors for the most part. Turnovers and miscues kept the Steelers on the wrong side of the scoreboard all game long.

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

However, don’t tell wide receiver Martavis Bryant that. The rookie wide receiver has quickly become quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s most consistent deep threat, and he showed that once again on Sunday.

But before we talk about where Bryant is now, let’s look at how he found his way to the Steelers in the first place.

During his time at Clemson, Bryant spent his time in the shadow of wide receiver Sammy Watkins. From 2011-2013, Bryant caught just 61 passes. This is only four more than Watkins had in his worst season at Clemson.

However, even while all the attention was on Watkins, Bryant was quietly making a name for himself. From a measureables standpoint, Bryant was a complete player. He measured up four inches taller than Watkins, with the same sort of deep speed NFL teams covet.

Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

Nevertheless, lack of production and concerns with consistency pushed him to the fourth round. There were 18 wide receivers taken ahead of Bryant. I considered Bryant a steal at that point but wondered what his role would be in the offense.

His size and speed certainly seemed to fit what the Steelers wanted to do, but there was already an abundance of talent at the wide receiver position with Antonio Brown, Markus Wheaton, Justin Brown, Darrius Heyward-Bey and Lance Moore.

And for the first six weeks of the season, the Steelers seemed content to let Bryant simmer as a healthy scratch for his rookie year. However, head coach Mike Tomlin finally decided by Week 6 that desperate times called for desperate measures and activated Bryant.

All Bryant has done over the last four games is catch 14 passes for 310 yards and six touchdowns. Sunday, against the Jets, Bryant had four catches for 143 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown bomb late in the game.

"

WR Martavis Bryant (@ThaBestUNO) became the first #Steelers rookie with a 100-yard receiving game since 2009 (Mike Wallace, Sept. 27).

— Dom Rinelli (@drinelli) November 9, 2014"

You would think with all this production, Bryant is seeing a ton of snaps, right? Not so much yet. According to Nathan Jahnke of Pro Football Focus, even on his best night, Bryant only saw 53 percent of snaps going into Sunday’s game.

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RT @PFF_NateJahnke: Martavis Bryant played in 53% of the Steelers offensive snaps tonight. His first time above 40%.

— Josh Carney (@Josh_Carney412) November 3, 2014"

This makes sense somewhat. Bryant is still learning the ins and outs of the offense, so there are certainly sets where he is more comfortable than others. And, with Bryant’s particular set of skills, there are route concepts where players like Wheaton and Moore are better fits.

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

However, Bryant is a long-striding, smooth athlete, who seems to just be able to find a second gear and run past defenders once the football is in the air. On that long touchdown on Sunday, Bryant was smart to drag that route to the middle of the field, forcing the defensive back to chase. Roethlisberger just put plenty of air under it, and Bryant’s athleticism did the rest.

It goes without saying that with the physical gifts Bryant possesses, it is hard to justify not having him on the field more. If this team wants to salvage its season and make the playoffs, Bryant must be an integral part of that.