It would seem the Steelers have a growing problem on their hands with disgruntled receiver Martavis Bryant, but as of now they are not expected to discipline him and certainly have no plans to trade him before the NFL's Oct. 31 deadline, a source said.
Bryant, who reiterated his desire to be traded in a since-deleted Instagram posts Sunday night, called in sick Monday and did not show up for a mandatory day of work with the rest of the Steelers, and at least one of them has had it.
"I just wish he were here to answer his own questions," veteran guard Ramon Foster, the team's union representative, told the Post-Gazette. "I'm over that."
Defensive captain Cam Heyward said Bryant should stay off social media.
"I wish it didn't happen at all. To each his own. I'm not going to judge a man for how he feels, but he has to be smarter."
Bryant's locker chair was folded and he was nowhere around hours after he wrote on Instagram on Sunday night that rookie teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster "is no where near better than me fool all they need to do is give me what I want and y'all can have juju and who ever else."
His statement came one week after many media outlets, including the Post-Gazette, revealed that Bryant and/or his representatives had asked the Steelers to trade him. The request came three weeks ago.
"No, he's not here," Foster said of Bryant. "I don't know what happened. I think he called in sick today. I don't know. I just wish he were here to answer his own questions. You can't throw that stuff out there on social media land and expect no forest fires behind it."
Bryant caught one pass for three yards in Sunday's 29-14 victory against Cincinnati at Heinz Field. He was targeted on just one more, a deep pass in which he turned the wrong way as it fell incomplete.
It's not the first time Bryant called in "sick." He missed two practices one week with what the Steelers said was an illness and then another practice the following week for the same reason. That occurred around the time he or his camp had asked for a trade.
Last week, his teammates joked about the trade talk, saying they would send him to the Golden State Warriors and some of them wanted to go as well. Now they're getting tired of whatever game he's playing.
"He can't leave us here to answer, is how I feel about it," Foster said. "I feel like last week we kind of pushed it aside and then you double down on it? Not cool from a teammate perspective."
Smith-Schuster, the Steelers' second-round draft pick, also was left to answer questions about Bryant's words and he did so willingly to a pack of media in the locker room Monday.
"I'm totally fine," he said. "Me and Martavis are totally cool. Ever since I got here from the beginning, we're close friends. We all want the ball. It's hard."
That opinion is shared by other teammates and coaches. They say Bryant continues to work hard in his return this season from a one-year NFL suspension for violating the league's drug policy. He was eagerly throwing blocks in their game Sunday. They say he is a good teammate.
So why all the comments that demeaned a 20-year-old rookie whose personality and work habits are popular among the rest of them? And why did Bryant mention in one Instagram post that he received no "support," apparently from the Steelers?
Bryant was reacting to others commenting to him on Instagram and not merely making statements in his posts Sunday night.
"Just don't respond to that stuff because nothing good can really come from it," Heyward said. "I've had my share where I've almost responded to the people on social media. It doesn't really work out for us. You're better off screen-shotting it and then saving it when we win the Super Bowl. But don't respond to it."
They also were not happy that it came after their second consecutive victory, which left them 5-2 and tied for the best record in the AFC.
"A very good team win," Foster noted. "My thing is, when we win, everybody eats. You know that. Those guys get paid for just being on the team. It's frustrating when you have to answer for that."
Added Heyward, "I don't care about that. We're worried about the Lions now. We're just trying to win games. We have a lot of good guys in here. You have to enjoy a good win. There's stuff that happens, but you can't really worry about it."
Heyward, though, did not think the latest from Bryant would become a distraction to the rest of his teammates.
"I think we have a good group of guys who won't get deterred over stuff like this," he said. "We'll just keep going forward."
