The Steelers are a team that seems to be good year in and year out. They are always on the list of teams that are Super Bowl contenders. However, the last few years they haven’t seemed like the Steelers of old. The Steelers have holes on their roster and one of those holes is the wide receiver position. The Steelers need someone to breakout and make an impact this year. Could that someone be Martavis Bryant?

The Steelers were one of the teams that analysts thought would go receiver early in the draft. If they didn’t take one in round one, most thought they would take one in the second. However, the Steelers decided to wait until the fourth-round and select Martavis Bryant out of Clemson. Bryant likely would have been a late second to mid-third round receiver in most drafts, but the depth of receivers in this draft pushed him down to the fourth.

Falling to the fourth-round couldn’t be what Bryant wanted, but he fell into a spot that he has a chance to make an impact immediately. The Steelers number-two receiver Emmanuel Sanders left for Denver and Jerricho Cotchery left for Carolina. That just leaves star receiver Antonio Brown and the Steelers third-round pick in 2013 Markus Wheaton in front of him. Bryant will be battling newly acquired receivers Lance Moore and Darrius Heyward-Bey for the number three role.

Bryant is a 6’4” receiver who also has 4.42 speed to get deep. He is the type of athlete for his size at receiver that teams love to take chances on. Bryant didn’t put up great stats at Clemson last year, he only had 42 receptions, but he had over 800 yards and averaged 19.7 yards per reception. Over his career he has averaged 22.2 yards per reception. This shows the type big play ability that the Steelers hope to get from him.

However, Bryant has some flaws to his game. Bryant is really going to have to work on his hands. Bryant tends to drop some easy passes and it has really held him back so far. On top of that, he isn’t a good route runner and is stiff in and out of breaks. He hasn’t shown that he is willing to go over the middle and make plays either. Bryant will need to show better toughness as a receiver.

I wouldn’t expect Bryant to make much of an impact this season. Brown and Wheaton will be ahead of him and I expect Moore to beat him out easily as well. At best I expect Bryant to be the Steelers number four receiver this season. There is a decent chance that Heyward-Bey beats him out too and Bryant uses this year as mostly a redshirt year. With Moore getting older and Heyward-Bey never really being a go to guy Bryant looks like a good bet to breakout in a year or two. As for this year however, I don’t expect Bryant to make an impact for the Steelers.