Over the course of the Pittsburgh Steelers last five games, wide receiver Martavis Bryant has only caught 3 deep passes from quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and zero in the last three. On Tuesday, Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley was asked in an interview on Steelers Nation Radio if the offense needs more out of Bryant.
“Yeah, the way our offense is built right now, we thrive on the chunk, plus 20 pays, whether it’s run or pass game,” said Haley. “We had some, but not enough. We’re up there in the top-5 in that category and it’s generally translated to winning for us, or scoring more points than our opponent and Martavis is a big part of that. Obviously teams know him that they recognize him a lot more than they had early on, but there’s still a number of opportunities given where we got to make more plays. You’re not going to make them all, but you got to make some. We had an early drop and sometimes when receivers don’t get in the flow of the game for whatever reason, whether it’s by their own doing or not, or by coverage and things like that, it’s hard to get going. But we need more out of everybody.”
Bryant has been targeted a total a total of 15 times with deep passes in the Steelers last five games and while some of those failed completions weren’t entirely his fault, there were a few that he should’ve come down with.
In Sundays loss to the Baltimore Ravens, Bryant had a chance to catch a deep pass from Roethlisberger while falling down with 2:00 left in the game and he failed to do so even though he got two hands on the football. Had he made that catch, the Steelers would’ve had a great opportunity to at least tie the game, if not win it, as the offense would’ve had the football inside the red zone.
While Bryant is an incredible talented wide receiver, he has to become more consistent moving forward when it comes to hauling in deep passes if he wants to be considered one of the best deep threats in the game.
