Fresh off a year-long weed suspension, Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant returned to the team this season only to abruptly request a trade, after his role in the offense diminished with the emergence of rookie WR JuJu Smith-Schuster. Bryant caught a single pass for three yards in yesterday’s 29-14 win over the Bengals, while Smith-Schuster racked up 39 yards and a touchdown, and after the game, Bryant once again expressed his frustration with the situation, this time in the comments on Instagram.
After a commenter tagged him in a post from user FantasyFootballCounselor about how much Ben Roethlisberger was targeting Antonio Brown, Bryant disparaged Smith-Schuster, claiming he was “no where near better than me.”
Bryant later deleted his comment and replaced it with a longer comment, which both praised Smith-Schuster and also claimed he was given “no help and little support,” presumably by the Steelers.
If this is what passes for a cleaned-up post after he realized he went too far in calling out his teammate, it would seem that he’s not backing down from his wish to get out of Pittsburgh as quickly as possible. ESPN also spoke to someone close to the receiver, who put it plainer than Bryant did:
“He wants out,” a source close to Bryant said. “Point blank.”