We just wrote about how Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receiver Martavis Bryant has grown physically, adding ten pounds during the offseason. But according to him, he’s also growing mentally.
“I am more prepared,” the second-year receiver told Drew Karpen of the Associated Press. “I have more confidence. I just trained and did karate and ran routes the whole offseason to get better. I worked on the whole route tree that we run so people can see that I can do more than just catch the deep ball.”
His route running and ability to be more than a dual threat is one of the biggest areas of his game to improve on. As Dave Bryan calculated it late last month, only six of Bryant’s 26 receptions came between six and 15 yards. It’s natural for a young receiver raw out of college to have an incomplete game, and it’s reasonable to assume Bryant will be more than Mike Tomlin’s “one-trick pony” line given to Mike Wallace, in 2015.
Bryant told Karpen it was initially difficult to be on the sidelines for nearly the first half of the season.
“I just worked hard to get better and Coach told me to make sure I take advantage of my opportunity when I got it.”
Take it he did, to the tune of over 21 yards per catch and eight touchdowns.
Every report during the offseason has depicted Bryant as a hard-working kid poised for a breakout year in 2015. And in turn, continue to make the Steelers’ offense one of the top threats in the league.
