The Steelers weren't willing to trade Martavis Bryant during the regular season as he returned from a year-long suspension for violation of the league's substance abuse policy. But, at least according to one report, they are listening to offers now for the speedy wide receiver.
According to the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, the Steelers aren't actively shopping Bryant but are open to listening to trade offers for the receiver, who caught 50 passes for 603 yards and three touchdowns in 2017. Bryant, 26, has one season remaining on his rookie contract and is due to make $705,000 in 2018.
A fourth-round pick out of Clemson in 2014, Bryant burst onto the scene midway through his rookie season, catching 26 passes for 549 yards and eight touchdowns in just 10 games.
But he also was suspended for the first time that offseason after failing a drug test and missed the first five games of the 2015 season. He then failed another drug test that year and was suspended for the entire 2016 season.
Bryant returned in 2017 but struggled getting on the same page with Ben Roethlisberger and wasn't the threat he had been earlier in his career when he had 15 touchdown catches in his first 21 games. His agent asked for a trade early in the season but the Steelers declined that request.
Bryant also drew a one-game suspension from Mike Tomlin last season for being critical of teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster on social media.
Given his relatively cheap cap hit in 2018 for a player with his production, it's unlikely the Steelers would trade Bryant unless they recoup a draft pick as good as or better than the fourth-round pick they used to select him. And it seems unlikely another team would want to give that up for a player who is one strike away from yet another lengthy suspension -- though Bryant has seemingly turned his life around, passing multiple drug tests each week over the past year.
There is also a big difference between listening to offers and actively pursuing them.