Can Sammie Coates, Darrius Heyward-Bey Fill WR Void for Steelers Until Week 5?

The Pittsburgh Steelers will be without the services of second-year wide receiver Martavis Bryant, after he was handed down a four-game suspension for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy. Bryant, who broke out late last year, catching 26 passes for 549 yards and eight touchdowns, was set to have an even bigger role in the Steelers offense this season.

Though that role could still be waiting for him upon his return in Week 5, in the interim, other Steelers receivers will have to pick up the slack. That means expanded work for Markus Wheaton alongside Antonio Brown and possibly more passing targets for tight end Heath Miller.

But the Steelers will need a third receiver on the field. That means rookie Sammie Coates and veteran Darrius Heyward-Bey will get more early-season receiving work than they would otherwise. And in order to keep Pittsburgh's high-powered offense going, the pair will have to be productive.

Last year, Heyward-Bey's first with the Steelers, the veteran spent most of his time working on special teams. He had only five targets and three catches for 33 yards. He does have a career 172 catches for 2,413 yards for 12 touchdowns and is only 28 years old, so he could still factor in as a speedy vertical threat for the Steelers. It's just that his ceiling has been reached; his playmaking abilities aren't at the same level of Bryant's.

Coates, meanwhile, has enough in common with Bryant that his NFL.com predraft profile named Bryant as the most comparable player to him. On one hand, that's a good thing—Coates is a big-play specialist, with Pro Football Focus noting in May that 41.9 percent of his collegiate targets came on passes of 20 or more yards.

But on the other hand, that means that Coates is a raw prospect who needs time and coaching up to be an on-field regular, much as Bryant was for the Steelers last year. His drop rate of 19.1 percent in college is also concerning and something that hasn't been properly dispatched. Pro Football Focus tallied four drops for Coates in the preseason, the most of any Steelers receiver. He also caught just 10 of the 22 passes thrown his way, for 179 yards and no touchdowns.

The Steelers, though, did make the decision to draft Coates in May based upon concerns about a looming Bryant suspension. So, at least within the organization, there must be some level of optimism about Coates' ability to step in early this year and make a positive impact regardless of his weaknesses.

But optimism and hypothetical situations are not the same as actually performing on the field. Coates will have to play, potentially before he's ready, and Heyward-Bey is going to have to take a larger receiving role than the Steelers had ever intended. 

Week	Tgts.	Rec.	Rec.%	Yds.	YAC	TD	Drop
Week 1	4	1	25.0%	12	0	0	1
Week 2	10	5	50.0%	52	1	0	1
Week 3	4	2	50.0%	60	12	0	2
Week 4	1	0	0.0%	0	0	0	0
Week 5	3	2	66.7%	55	13	0	0
Total	22	10	45.5%	179	28	0	4

Luckily, the pair only serve as stopgaps for four weeks, and Bryant can return to the team and hopefully be an impact player as he was in the second half of the 2014 season. The rest of the Steelers' offensive playmakers, such as Brown, Wheaton, Miller and Le'Veon Bell (after he serves his own two-game suspension), could be enough to help the Steelers that Coates and Heyward-Bey can be bit players in the interim.

The Steelers do lose a strong vertical threat in Bryant, and his stellar preseason, in which eight catches totaled him 215 yards, 101 yards after the catch and two touchdowns, only further highlights just how much Bryant can do even with few touches. But Coates and Heyward-Bey combined could give the Steelers similar output on a similar number of catches. And what better way for Coates to gain experience than by actually playing in games?

The Bryant suspension is a setback for the Steelers, but not a major one. They had planned for this possibility, via the draft, and have enough players and playmakers to minimize the impact of Bryant being away. It's disappointing, but it's not a sign of impending doom.