All appears to be well right now with Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant since he was conditionally reinstated by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell just ahead of the 2017 NFL Draft and assuming he’s ultimately fully reinstated, it’s hard to imagine him not going on to have a career season.
Recently, Marc Sessler of NFL.com took on the task of attempting to project a first-time Pro Bowler for all 32 NFL teams and he selected Bryant for the Steelers.
Sessler writes:
Pittsburgh’s squad is flush with Pro Bowlers. Scanning potential first-timers, right tackle Marcus Gilbert deserves consideration, along with talented defensive end Stephon Tuitt. Pro Bowl voting, though, reacts heavily to highlight-reel plays on the big stage, and that’s what Martavis Bryant brings to the table. Coming off his year-long suspension, the freaky receiver is expected to see starting snaps across from Antonio Brown, presenting a raging headache for defensive coordinators. Bryant brings an entirely new element to this offense, and the chemistry he showed with Ben Roethlisberger down the stretch in 2015 only hints at what is to come.
Sessler quite obviously and with good reason probably had a hard time narrowing his Steelers selection down to just one player as strong arguments can be made for both Marcus Gilbert and Stephon Tuitt possibly receiving their first Pro Bowl nominations in 2017. However, being as we live in a very fantasy sports driven world right now, it’s not overly surprising that Sessler settled on Bryant as his choice for the Steelers.
While Bryant has yet to play a full 16-game regular season schedule since joining the Steelers as a fourth-round draft pick in 2014, he has played in a total of 24 games if you include playoff contests. Counting all games played in, Bryant has registered 95 receptions for 1,558 yards and 16 touchdowns and if you average those numbers out per game, it’s easy to project that he might possibly could register a 2017 regular season stat line of 63 receptions for 1,039 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Now, would those aforementioned numbers be enough for Bryant to garner a trip to the Pro Bowl at the conclusion of the 2017 season? Being as there’s a lot of politics involved when it comes to Pro Bowl selections, I’m guessing Bryant would need to have an even better year than my stat extrapolation.
Those silly Pro Bowl honors aside, I doubt any of you reading this post would have any issues if Bryant caught roughly 65 passes for roughly 1,050 yards and had 10 or more touchdowns during the 2017 regular season and especially if fellow Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown keeps putting up numbers similar to what he has in recent years.
The last time the Steelers had two players each register 1,000 yards receiving in a single season was in 2011 when Brown and Mike Wallace accomplished the feat. Assuming both Brown and Bryant both stay healthy in 2017, there’s no reason to think the duo can’t each register 1,000 yards receiving. If that ultimately happens, there’s a very good chance the Steelers will be poised for another deep playoff run that will hopefully include both Brown and Bryant being unable to play in the Pro Bowl should either be selected to play in the annual all-star game.
