The distraction of the week for the Steelers may just be in the media's mind, Mike Tomlin implied.
Martavis Bryant wants to be traded? Who said?
"I don't know where these reports come from," Tomlin said during his weekly news conference Tuesday. "Sometimes they come from family members or people close to them or sometimes they can come from agents.
"I don't judge him or my relationship with him based on things said by others. He appears to be happy and focused and so it's a non-issue for us."
It's probably unlikely that, say, Bryant's girlfriend called up general manager Kevin Colbert and demanded that the wide receiver be traded, although she did write some strong stuff to that effect on Twitter. And it's not hard to believe that Bryant did not go to Tomlin or Colbert and demand a trade.
That would leave his representatives to do the heavy lifting, because someone from Bryant's side requested a trade. And while that might be illogical, it has to show some dissatisfaction on the player's part for his girlfriend to be complaining and someone asking for a trade all the while Bryant's playing time was reduced Sunday in Kansas City.
Tomlin said it wasn't reduced, that Bryant and rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster both had "over 45 snaps" in Kansas City.
"You guys," Tomlin told the media, "are cutting it pretty thin there when you're distinguishing roles with both guys playing over 40 snaps. Sometimes it's just schematic matchups, sometimes it's things we're trying to do within the game.
"I wouldn't read too much into it, to be honest with you."
Really, all that reasoning is correct, except that the official NFL stats show that Bryant played 33 snaps in Kansas City, or 52 percent of the offensive plays. Smith-Schuster played 44 on offense or 69 percent.
It comes after Ben Roethlisberger accurately predicted the previous Tuesday on 93.7 The Fan that Smith-Schuster would get more playing time in Kansas City at the expense of Bryant.
There's nothing wrong with that. Coaches create game plans and deploy their players how they best feel they can win. All of their jobs and reputations depend on it.
That does not fully explain Bryant's situation. Maybe he is unhappy only when talking to his girlfriend and agent and not to his coaches, teammates and the media. Maybe after missing an entire season, he's not progressing the way they'd like.
Asked about where his progress is, Tomlin at first said, "I don't know," but quickly added, "I think he's doing great."
"Again, we've outlined this pretty regularly over recent weeks as I stand in here," the coach continued. "I like where he is, he's acknowledging that getting back on the train is a process. I think that the process is going well because of that acknowledgement. I think I said that a week ago. It's still all very true."
And his blocking, route-running, etc?
"It's been great," Tomlin said. "I think week-in and week-out he's just playing faster and gaining more detail in his execution. But I think it's reasonable to expect that because he's working hard."
The real issue may not be who asked for him to be traded, whether he's happy, or how well he blocks. The Steelers need the Martavis Bryant from the second half of 2014 through 2015 to show up in 2017. He did so in the second game of the season, and it helped them produce a victory against the Minnesota Vikings.
Playing him only half of the game does not make it appear he is progressing.
