Martavis Bryant’s loss looks to become second-year Steelers receiver Sammie Coates’ gain as the former Auburn standout has been standing out during his second fall camp with Pittsburgh.
After playing sparingly as a rookie and only catching one pass in his first NFL season, the Steelers are now looking to Coates to emerge following Bryant’s season-long suspension. Early reports out of camp indicate Coates showed up ready to do just that in his sophomore campaign.
“I wanted to come in and be ready to play,” Coates said, according to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “You can’t come in half way. I came in ready with the attitude like, I’m coming in to help the team win. That’s the attitude I have this year.”
Now in a system that should help him see plenty of targets, Coates noted the offensive philosophy differences from his days on the Plains with the Tigers.
“The offense I was in [at Auburn], you didn’t get a lot of targets, so if I dropped one it was like the end of the world,” Coates said.
Considering the Steelers are known for finding success with late-round receivers – Antonio Brown (sixth round), Mike Wallace (third round), Martavis Bryant (fourth round) and Emmanuel Sanders (third round) – Coates could be the next receiver to emerge for the Steelers after being selected from the later rounds of the NFL draft.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
