If Martavis Bryant is happy to be in Pittsburgh as he claimed last week, he has a funny way of showing it.
The Steelers receiver took to Instagram on Sunday night to make a case for more targets, again expressing frustration with his role in the offense. In the process, Bryant took a swipe at teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster and intimated he wants out of Pittsburgh.
A post from “FantasyFootballCounselor” showed a video of Ben Roethlisberger overthrowing Antonio Brown on third-and-one and criticized the Steelers quarterback for forcing the ball to Brown rather than throwing to Bryant. A commenter trolled Bryant, tagging him in a reply that stated Smith-Schuster is better.
Bryant took the bait, responding from his official account, “JuJu is no where near better than me, fool. All they need to do is give me what I want and y’all can have JuJu and whoever else.”
The post later was deleted.
Instead, Bryant’s Instagram comment about Smith-Schuster now reads: “JuJu is the future and got great talent and is going to be one of the best to play this game. I want him to get his. I just want mines, period, point-blank. Ain’t nobody did nothing to get me back. I worked my ass off to get myself back with no help and little support, period. In due time the process will show.”
Roethlisberger targeted Smith-Schuster three times in Sunday’s 29-14 victory over the Bengals, completing two for 39 yards and a touchdown. He targeted Bryant twice, with Bryant making one catch for 3 yards.
For the season, Bryant, who missed last season while serving a suspension, has 36 targets and 18 catches for 234 yards and a touchdown.
NFL Media reported last week that Bryant had requested a trade, and team president Art Rooney II responded that the Steelers are not looking to trade the frustrated receiver.
But Bryant’s continued expressions of displeasure and frustration might influence the team into moving him before the Oct. 31 deadline.