Here is the Steelers' current depth chart at wide receiver: Antonio Brown, Eli Rogers, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Sammie Coates, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Justin Hunter and Martavis Bryant.
Brown is the NFL's best wideout, but behind him, uncertainy reigns. Eli Rogers, a former undrafted free agent, was third on the team in receptions last year behind Brown and running back
Le'Veon Bell hen it was tight end Jesse James; Coates, who was injured for the final three months of the season; and tight end Ladarius Green, a middle-of-the-field chess piece who played in just six games.
Smith-Schuster was a second-round pick in last week's draft; Hunter, a former Titans second-round pick, was signed this spring, which brings us to Bryant. The 2014 fourth-rounder out of Clemson is one of the most physically gifted players in a league full of them. But he's struggled to stay on the right side of the NFL's substance abuse policy, and after serving a four-game suspension in 2015, Bryant was suspended for all of 2016. Recently reinstated, the hope is that he can avoid trouble, focus on football and help improve on a Steelers offense that ranked No. 8 last season, according to Football Outsiders.
Fans are ecstatic about what Bryant brings to an already explosive group, the man leading that group, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, remains cautious.
"It's more than just me. He has to win back everybody's trust," Roethlisberger, who admitted that he felt betrayed by Bryant's last suspension after supporting the wideout through the first one, told the Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette. "I would hope he comes up to me and we go somewhere to talk in private. After that, he has to show with his work ethic and by staying clean that he cares -- really cares -- about us. If he does that, it'll be huge. He can really help us. He can be so great."
And that might be underselling it.
A fully healthy, fully engaged Steelers offense might be unstoppable; Big Ben is a top-five quarterback; Brown will no longer face double- and triple-teams -- and some combination of Bryant/Coates/Rogers will be the likely beneficiaries; Green will create matchup problems in the middle of the field; and we haven't even gotten to the part with Bell is a pass-catching nightmare coming out of the backfield.
But first things first: Bryant has to prove he can stay out of trouble.