Mike Tomlin took a hard line with disgruntled receiver Martavis Bryant, telling him he will not play Sunday in Detroit as punishment for his social media use.
Bryant, the Steelers' No. 2 starting receiver after Antonio Brown, worked exclusively with the scout team Wednesday, portraying Lions wide receiver Marvin Jones for the Steelers' first-team offense.
"I'm not playing Sunday, which is fine," Bryant told reporters packed around his locker after practice. "I'm not tripping. It is what it is."
Bryant said he has no regrets about anything other than it has caused distractions for the team and people taking it as criticism of rookie teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Bryant and his camp have asked the Steelers to trade him, but Tomlin said on Tuesday that won't happen.
"I'm going to see what happens," Bryant said regarding the trade request. "Right now I'm here, so I'm going to play hard and finish strong and see what happens. That's all I can focus on right now."
Bryant complained in a post on Instagram Sunday night that "all they need to do is give me what I want and y'all can have juju and who ever else." He wrote that "Juju is no where near better than me," that "I just want mines" and he returned from a one-year suspension for violating the NFL's drug policy "with no help and little support."
He said Wednesday the Steelers organization did support him because they did not cut him, and said his teammates have always supported him.
Bryant said he did not need anyone to tell him to cool it on social media.
"I'm going to stay off it myself; you see what happens when I get on there, I attract a lot of attention. I learned from it, it is what it is and I'm going to move on from it."
He also promised to not be any kind of distraction the rest of the year.
