Baring something totally unforeseen between now and Monday night, Pittsburgh Steelers rookie wide receiver Martavis Bryant will dress for the first time the season for the primetime game against the Houston Texans.
During a Wednesday interview with the media, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was asked to talk about what the 6’4″ Bryant brings to the team when they’re inside the red zone and if he thinks he will help in that area.
“Well, he’s a big body,” said Roethlisberger. “I hope that he’s on his p’s and q’s, in his playbook and knows his plays. We’ll see. We might as well try every option that we have.”
Due to Bryant being hampered early on in the season by a shoulder injury, and combined with the fact that he’s been on the bottom of the depth chart, Roethlisberger hasn’t had a chance to work much with the fourth-round draft pick since training camp. Because of that, Roethlisberger was asked Wednesday if he sees that lack of practice time with the rookie as being a possible problem heading into Monday night.
“I hope not,” said the Steelers quarterback. “I’m sure we’ll see some this week. We have an extra day with the Monday night game, so we’ll give him the reps and I think the key is not overload a guy with too much stuff.”
By the sound of things, Bryant, who caught six passes for 68 yards during the preseason, will more than likely only see limited playing time Monday night with most of his snaps likely to come inside the red zone area, an area that has given the Steelers offense fits the last few games. Roethlisberger was asked Wednesday if the red zone problems the offense is currently is having is a result of poor execution or poor play calling.
“Well we’re not doing very well down there” he said. “Players play and coaches coach and as players we need to execute what plays are called. We need to do what’s better on our end.”
Hopefully Bryant will wind up executing and being on the end of one of Roethlisberger’s red zone passes Monday night.
