Fansided

Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant suggests draft pick is not replacing him

By Brad Berreman

Jan 9, 2016; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant (10) warms up before the AFC Wild Card playoff football game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 9, 2016; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant (10) warms up before the AFC Wild Card playoff football game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports /
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 The Pittsburgh Steelers have drafted a wide receiver, but Martavis Bryant sees it as no threat to his tenuous status.

After sitting out the entire 2016 season, with what was deemed an indefinite suspension after multiple failed drug tests, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant was reinstated earlier this week. He’s clearly toeing a thin line with the league office, and one more mistake within the NFL drug policy is likely to bring a lifetime ban.

The Steelers took USC wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster No. 62 overall on Friday night, which should put some other receivers that are close to the roster bubble on notice. Bryant clearly does not think Smith-Schuster is any threat to his roster spot or role, and he went so far as to point a finger right at a teammate.

Bryant does have a point, even though he deleted the tweet suggesting Smith-Schuster is replacing Coates and not himself, with Coates totaling just 22 receptions in 20 regular season games over his first two NFL seasons. Hand and groin issues plagued Coates last year, but he’s looking like a third-round draft bust if there is such a thing (No. 87 overall in 2015). In any case, Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin did not like Bryant’s social media commentary.

And Coates had a reaction to the head coach’s reaction.

The Steelers have a loaded depth chart at wide receiver, with Antonio Brown, Eli Rogers, Bryant, Smith-Schuster, Darrius Heyward-Bey , Justin Hunter, Cobi Hamilton, Coates and DeMarcus Ayers. Outside of Brown for certain and probably Rogers, no roles are locked in and the battle simply for roster spots should be spirited. Heyward-Bey is probably a safe bet to make the Steelers’ final 53-man roster, and so is Smith-Schuster now, with leaves five guys to compete for three or four other spots. So there will be at least one odd-man out, and possibly two.

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It’s almost a foregone conclusion Coates will be cut at this point. But Bryant is not the one that should be casting Twitter stones at others, since he is on shaky ground too.

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