On July 15, 2019, Martavis Bryant decided to apply for reinstatement to the NFL. This will be the second time he had to apply in his short career.
Martavis Bryant has had off the field issues throughout his career. In 2014, during his rookie year with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he had a bad attitude and would miss practices. During his 2015 season, he was suspended for the first four games for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy. In the following season, he was suspended for the whole year for the same violation.
On April 25, 2017 season he filed for reinstatement, and the Steeler organization welcomed him back with open arms. The Steelers lacked a competitive receiver to take away some of the double teams from star wide receiver Antonio Brown.
Eventually, Bryant being off for a whole year took its toll after week six. He started getting frustrated because he felt he was not getting enough reps to fulfill his role in the high-powered offense. He demanded a trade after being demoted and was replaced by rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster.
In April 2018, Bryant was traded to the Oakland Raiders for a third round pick. During the offseason, he possibly faced another suspension for substance abuse.
In December, he received his third strike on the substance abuse policy. In other words, he violated the agreement of the reinstatement.
It will be hard to say how the NFL will respond to Martavis’s application. He needs to be cleared of any substances and he needs to be medically cleared. His mental condition is intact and is physically fit to come back.
If Bryant gets reinstated, he will be placed in the free agent pool because the Raiders cut him during this last suspension. There are tons of teams that are looking for a third receiver. He will have to face the fact that he will probably only be worth the league minimum. His journey back to being a star will be hard, but he can do this with the right frame of mind.
