One of the knocks on Pittsburgh Steelers rookie wide receiver Martavis Bryant heading into the draft was that his work ethic could be much better. Andrea Adelson of ESPN.com noted this in an article last April on the Clemson product.
Apparently, that knock on Bryant is holding some water already at the NFL level and it was on display Wednesday at practice. It did not go unnoticed by head coach Mike Tomlin.
According to Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Bryant’s failure to turn up the field quickly with the football during a drill prompted an outburst from Tomlin.
“Finish it 10,” Tomlin barked out to Bryant, according to Kaboly’s report.
Tomlin apparently then informed Bryant that he should be emulating fellow wide receiver Antonio Brown.
This instance will easily go down as yet another teachable moment, as Tomlin likes to call them and there will likely be more of those moments spent on Bryant over the remainder of the offseason.
Bryant has a lot of talent, but his rawness will take some time to overcome as will his youthfulness. The quicker that he can change his work ethic, the better. Not only does Bryant have Brown in the wide receivers’ room to learn from, he also has an established veteran in Lance Moore.
Almost immediately after Bryant was drafted, there where a few reports suggesting that he could start opposite Brown during his rookie season based on post selection comments made by wide receivers coach Richard Mann. If you believed those reports, shame on you.
Bryant won’t be starting anytime soon for the Steelers and there’s a decent chance that he opens the 2014 season on the inactive list. He might be “tall”, but he still has some growing up left to do.
