Steelers notebook: Rookie WR Sammie Coates plays waiting game

[stillers4me]

The Steelers selected Sammie Coates in the third round of the draft as insurance against Martavis Bryant being in the NFL’s substance-abuse program. When Bryant received a four-game suspension to start the season, the Steelers dressed a rookie for the opener at New England, but it wasn’t Coates.


Undrafted rookie free agent Tyler Murphy dressed as the fourth receiver and caught a 16-yard pass on the final drive for the Steelers. Coates, meanwhile, was inactive and watched from the sideline.


“He just needs to keep getting work, keep getting confidence and keep putting the work in to get mentally ready, both in the playbook and on the field,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said...........

Read more @ http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/s...s/201509170051

[86WARD]

IMO, a third round draft pick isn't a pick that should be inactive on game days. At minimum, the third round pick should be a solid special teams contributor. This is another problem with the Steelers draft...they aren't getting players that can contribute to the team, take up roster spaces and then are eventually cut and wasted...major reason why they are in this position now. 2008, 2009...if those drafts had 2-4 players that were still contributing to this day, there may not be so many issues on this team...they'd have 4 seasoned veteran leaders on the team...

[Count Steeler]

I've said it for a while now, player development is another major concern with this coaching staff.

[steelreserve]

If you're going to use a high draft pick largely because of a situation in the first 4 games of the season, you would think they'd at least play him in those 4 games. I thought I remembered him playing well in the preseason?

Wheaton did OK and DHB was better than expected, but neither did anything to clearly stand out. I think despite having great speed, Wheaton is not the deep threat that Bryant is or Wallace was, and instead benefits a lot from having a guy like that on the field while he catches the medium stuff. So if we've got that guy somewhere else on the roster, it would make sense to use him.

[86WARD]

Inactive for another Week...

[Count Steeler]

Coaches are not putting this team in a position to be successful.

[steelreserve]

That's super. Good to see we're making the most of that pick already.

Hey, I see Landry Jones is inactive again too. Good thing we kept him on the roster. Since, you know, if we run into any injuries at QB, having a backup who's not even eligible to play helps us a ton.