Steelers HC Mike Tomlin’s end-of-season assessment of WR Martavis Bryant, who was inactive for the first six games of his rookie year only to come on to catch 26 passes for 549 yards (21.1 average) and eight touchdowns was on point. “I saw growth in him. And that growth came with snaps,” said Tomlin. “I would imagine he is going to get more opportunities to grow with those snaps. The thing is, he has to continue to grow and have an open mind. He has to acknowledge that he doesn’t have all the answers. Sometimes that is seemingly more difficult than it appears. He probably has less anxiety now than he did nine or 10 months ago because there are less unknowns. Sometimes that’s a good thing for men, and sometimes that’s a bad thing for men. I am going to be watching him very closely as he proceeds.” If Bryant remains the coachable individual he was in 2014, he can develop into a dynamic NFL receiver.
Bryant averaged 2.8 catches for 56 yards and 0.82 TD in the final 11 games of the season (including a 5-61-1 outing against Baltimore in the playoffs). Thanks to the incredible touchdown rate, those are high-end WR2 numbers in standard formats and solid WR2 numbers in PPR. What's more, he didn't play 60 percent of the snaps until the postseason, so there's upside here from a playing time standpoint. If he earns a starting role this offseason -- and it looks like he will -- he’ll be a middle round pick in 2015 fantasy drafts.
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