During the first quarter of the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday night win over the Indianapolis Colts, I was bombarded by people on Twitter asking why wide receiver Martavis Bryant wasn’t on the field much.
Head coach Mike Tomlin was asked about that on Tuesday and he told the media that the early odd rotation at wide receiver that included Darrius Heyward-Bey seeing a lot of early playing time had nothing to do with Bryant being disciplined.
“No, not disciplinary in any way,” said Tomlin. “Not anything other than probably how the flow of the game was unfolding. We turned the ball over some there at the early stages that probably got us out of intended rhythm, but I wouldn’t read too much into that. But definitely not anything of any in-house disciplinary fashion or anything of that nature. Martavis has been working hard and been good for us.”
Bryant had been limited earlier in the week with a minor hip injury but he looked no worse for wear Sunday night. There’s no real reason for Tomlin to lie about the lack of early playing time Bryant received, so perhaps it was just part of the early game plan.
Bryant wound up playing 41 total snaps in the game while Heyward-Bey played only 12. The Steelers former fourth-round draft pick also caught 4 passes for 114 yards and a touchdown Sunday night in what was his 17th regular season game played in during his career.
