Bryant’s progress pleasing to Tomlin
down.
Bryant never said a word to his quarterback.
“It happens,” Bryant said Wednesday. “Sometimes you miss and sometimes you make them. You have to continue to work at it. When it comes down to it, we’re going to hit them some more.”
Bryant said he does not tell his quarterback he was open if he did not throw him the ball.
“Just let the film show it. I’m not going to say anything to him about it because what can we do about it? It’s over with. Just put it on film and let him see. Maybe another game, another route and if we have the same route maybe he’ll be looking my way. I’m not going to complain to him about it, though.”
If only Brown would act that way, Roethlisberger and Mike Tomlin implied Tuesday. But like ignoring the water cooler in times of frustration, Bryant would not take it out on Brown for the fit he threw in Baltimore Sunday.
“Of course I can understand the frustration he has,” Bryant said. “He’s the best receiver in the league. He feels like he deserves the ball. He was wide open on that play, Ben just missed it; so he showed his frustration that probably has been building up for weeks.
“We’ve always had his back no matter how he reacts or what he does. I just told him to stay focused and stay in the game, that was it.”
Roethlisberger and Tomlin said Brown’s antics could be a distraction, but Bryant said “only if you let it be a distraction to you.”
“Every player has emotions and each player shows his emotions different. His emotions came out. We just had to stay focused. We got the win and moved on and put it behind us.”
Bryant said that is where he has put all of his own distractions that got him twice suspended by the NFL, including the entire 2016 season, for failing drug tests. He said he likes how he’s come along on and off the field.
“It’s all behind me, I’m not worried about it anymore. I’m not recovering any more. ... I’m going out and having fun, I’m making plays when the ball comes to me. I just have to do a better job at blocking, but as far as my route running and stuff, I’m doing pretty good.”
His statistics are not yet Bryant-like, even though he averages a healthy 18.3 yards on 10 receptions. They would be so much more if three big plays were counted.
Besides the overthrow in Baltimore, he was wide open for a 49-yard touchdown against Minnesota but instead was tackled by a defensive back for a pass interference penalty. Roethlisberger threw him a deep pass on the first play in Chicago that glanced off his fingertips.
Bryant took the blame for that last one, saying, “I stopped running and I tried to catch back up to the ball.”
All things considered, Tomlin likes how Bryant has come along after missing all of last season.
“I like a few very specific things about it,” Tomlin said. “Man, he is not in any way guarded about this process that he’s going through, and I think that aids the process. When you’ve been out of football the length of time he’s been out of football, there’s some rust to knock off, there’s some re-acclimating, if you will. He’s not pretending that there’s not, and I think that has been helpful throughout the process.
“He’s done a great job of communicating and working on a day-to-day basis, so from that standpoint, it’s made the process probably a more fluid one than it could be. It’s been a fun one. He does a really good job of communicating where he is, and we talk openly about where his game needs to go.”