Inside the Lines: Receiver competition intensifies

LATROBE, Pa. -- The return of Martavis Bryant turned lots of heads when the Steelers returned to Saint Vincent College for training camp Sunday, but it wasn't the heads of Mike Tomlin or Ben Roethlisberger that caught my eye. Rather, it was the reaction of Bryant's colleagues competing for a spot on the team at the same position.



As soon as the receivers and defensive backs started to pair against each other for coverage drills, Bryant locked up with Ross Cockrell and did what everybody wanted to see after all this time — run deep fly routes and burn his man.

And burn he did, as each of his opportunities in the initial one-on-one drills were him running go routes down the seam and Roethlisberger throwing a bomb each time. Bryant would beat Cockrell by at least two steps on every route and caught two of the three passes in these drills, with the only failed attempt just being an overthrow from his quarterback.