Brief and to the Point ...
Sammie Coates can sprint the straight-line route, he can stretch the field, and he might even be capable of saving the Steelers' offensive playbook without Martavis Bryant.
But he shouldn't be defined by any of those beforehand.
"Denver," Coates was telling me Monday afternoon at his stall. "Look at Denver. That's me."
He made only two catches in that game, the Jan. 17 AFC Divisional Playoff loss in Denver, but those also accounted for two-thirds of his rookie season total, so the sample size seems fair. Especially since those catches accounted for 61 yards. One was a 24-yarder from Ben Roethlisberger across the middle in which he spied a rare soft spot in the Broncos' secondary, and the other was this nifty 37-yard catch-and-run:
"Denver, man," Coates continued. "I was able to make a couple plays out there. That felt good. I was able to show some things."
He'll show plenty more, if you ask me, if he's not asked by the coaching staff to be Martavis II, with Bryant suspended for all of 2016. And I'm not convinced yet that'll be the case. Not with Coates having been asked to run little more than go routes in Latrobe, and not with all concerned acknowledging he's basically taking the place of Bryant's X in the playbook.
I appreciate that Todd Haley will prioritize Markus Wheaton as the No. 2 receiver. That's never been clearer, as our Dustin Dopirak reported Monday, based on the extensive time Roethlisberger is investing in Wheaton. But even with Antonio Brown as No. 1 and Wheaton as No. 2, Coates can and must be utilized as more than a field-stretching decoy.
Look at it this way: Has Ben ever been better in his career at throwing sideline routes?
Why not involve Coates, who tiptoed toward this beauty two weeks ago from Landry Jones?
That was no fluke. Coates left Auburn with a reputation for drops that Richard Mann, the Steelers' wide receivers coach, emphatically told us on his draft day was inaccurate based on their own analyses. Mann's been mostly right. And in the interim, even through sparse activity last season, Coates has only grown, both in performance and versatility.
So never mind that Coates could have come back to the ball a bit and swatted away that pick-6 by the Eagles last week. Blaming receivers for interceptions is fair. Blaming them for Jones throwing interceptions is akin to blaming a tornado for shifting a hair out of place. Coates will learn from it.
All he needs to do is stay on the field.
"The best thing about the preseason so far is that I'm getting a lot of reps, a lot of work," he said with a smile shining through the braids blanketing most of his face as he laced up. "I need to go out there and be myself, do my thing. If that means finding a soft spot, down the sideline, running with it ... I'll do whatever."
As for being Martavis?
"I can do those routes, too."
Yeah, he can. This was from preseason last year against the Packers:
• Food for thought: Jarvis Jones should be the new Jason Worilds.
Remember a couple years ago when Worilds suddenly began scorching quarterbacks off the edge and, in a snap, a high draft pick close to being called a bust began checking off sack after sack?
At the time, Worilds was musing about how much 'simpler' the game had become for him, how he stopped overthinking everything and reduced it all to visually hanging a steak around the quarterback's neck. Sure, there was more to it. Any outside linebacker has to contain the edge. But the impact of the sacks overwhelmed all else.
Well, Jones is roughly 20 pounds lighter than last season, and he told me Monday he's lightened the load elsewhere, too.
"I'm not thinking as much," he said. "I'm just playing football. I'm at that stage of my career where everything else should be second-nature. Now, I can just focus on making plays, flying to the football."
And, of course, getting more than three sacks in 17 total games.
He's got to be better. He's got to make that breakthrough this fall.
"It's coming, man. It's coming. I'm feeling fast."
• On the topic of linebackers breaking through, let's add Vince Williams to the list.
Lawrence Timmons will continue to anchor the inside. That's a no-brainer. But L.T. is 30 and still doesn't have an extension beyond the coming season. I wouldn't be opposed to his being kept around, but only at a cap-friendly rate. His position takes a terrible toll with 100-plus tackles year after year.
But Williams, 26, has a chance, in his time on the field, to make a move of his own and become Ryan Shazier's partner for years to come. He had back-to-back five-tackle outputs against the Seahawks and Colts last fall, he's got the physique, he's got the athleticism, he's got the flexibility to drop into coverage and, oh, man, he's got the fire.
"My only focus," Williams assured me Monday, "is on helping this team."
Healthy approach.
• It's years overdue that Kevin Colbert takes quarterback depth seriously.
• Even by baseball's cruelest standards, seeing David Freese sign an $11 million extension and get thrown out on an inexplicable, indefensible baserunning error to end the Pirates' loss Monday to the Astros ... yeah, that's special. Especially for someone who's been so solid, so smart from the day he arrived in Bradenton.
That said, I'll reiterate, maybe for the millionth time, thick praise for Neal Huntington and staff for identifying Freese, signing him to a value contract that put at least some of the Charlie Morton savings to good use and, now, for wrapping him up through 2019. That's quality player procurement from the outside.
• When anyone's asked me to identify an affordable pitcher the Pirates might have targeted once J.A. Happ left for the Blue Jays, I've come back with the same name every time: Doug Fister.
Yeah, the Fister who mowed down everyone Monday night at PNC Park.
He's now 12-8 in 25 starts for the Astros -- both figures would lead the Pirates' rotation by a country mile -- with a 3.59 ERA, 101 strikeouts and a 1.25 WHIP. This despite pitching at the bandbox that is Houston's Minute Maid Park.
Jeff Luhnow, the Astros' GM, signed Fister as a free agent in January, after most of the big names were off the board, and he got great value: Fister, 31, had a mild setback 2015 with a 4.19 ERA, but he was terrific the previous year in D.C., so it was reasonable to expect a rebound. That's why Luhnow creatively offered a one-year $7 million contract that included $1 million bonuses each for 100, 125, 150, 175 and 200 innings.
Even if the Astros pay the full $12 million, it's a great deal.
There are always, always options out there.
• The Astros' payroll currently ranks 24th in Major League Baseball at $107.6 million, to the Pirates' 25th at $102.6 million. The Marlins, who just swept through PNC Park and have a better record than the Pirates, are 28th and way back at $78.2 million. And the Royals, who just won the World Series and are based in a smaller market than Pittsburgh, are right in the middle of the pack, 15th at $142.9 million. The Yankees, whose payroll is an insane $238 million, are one game better than the Pirates and a near-lock to miss the playoffs.
My point?
Yes, it's a terribly unfair economic system at its essence. But payroll isn't close to the No. 1 deciding factor as to who builds a winner or a loser. Good decisions go first, guts second, money third.
• The Pirates, coming off a 98-win season and three consecutive playoff berths, have sold out six of their 62 games at PNC Park. They also failed to sell out their final 18 regular-season home games of 2015 despite a scintillating stretch drive. So that's six of the past 80 games selling out at one of the majors' smallest stadiums.
I've never subscribed to the oft-stated mantra that Pittsburgh isn't a baseball town. It's silly to think that when we've had big-league baseball nonstop since 1887.
But if it isn't a great baseball town now, then when?
Oskar looks out over his hometown. #StanleyCup is soon off for Russia (Boden, SWE) @penguins @NHL @HockeyHallFame pic.twitter.com/FA8kaYWPZi
— Philip Pritchard (@keeperofthecup) August 22, 2016