Sammie Coates is not taking anything for granted.
It doesn’t matter to him he was a third-round draft choice in 2015 who possesses marvelous physical skills.
Or for the first five games last season he stepped in for the suspended Martavis Bryant and performed Bryant-like feats as a big-play receiver — catching an NFL-best six passes of 40 yards or longer, including a 72-yard touchdown on the third play against the New York Jets.
Big Ben goes DEEP.
— NFL (@NFL) October 9, 2016
That's Sammie Coates.
That's 6 points. #NYJvsPIT #HereWeGo https://t.co/ht83zLumT1
It is a stretch to say Coates, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound wide receiver, is in a battle for his professional life. After all, he is only 24 with just two years of NFL experience. But it might not be entirely accurate, either, to say he is a lock to make the Steelers 53-man roster, even though that would appear more likely than the other scenario.
Nonetheless, that is the approach Coates took — that nothing is guaranteed — as he fought to get back on the practice field after spending the first 2½ weeks of training camp on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list. He was activated from the PUP list and was scheduled to practice Wednesday.
“You always got to prove yourself, I don’t care how good a season you had or how bad a season you had,” Coates said. “You always got to prove to them and show them you’re capable of doing the same things you did before. You always want to show them you worked on this or I got better at that. There’s always something to prove, no matter who you are.”
Coates hasn’t had that chance.
He had arthroscopic knee surgery two weeks before the opening of training camp and has done nothing more than rehab his knee and work out on an adjacent practice field at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. Worse, he has watched rookie receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and free-agent pick-up Justin Hunter get lot of reps with the first-team offense while Bryant waited to return from suspension.
“It’s just a fact — I missed a lot, with injuries, with the offense,” Coates said. “That catches up with people. You don’t get them reps, you can’t get them back. You missed them. You fall behind all through the season.”
That’s what happened to Coates in 2016 after his torrid start in which he caught 19 passes for 421 yards and averaged an NFL-best 22.2 yards per catch. That stretch was capped by a performance against the New York Jets in which he caught six passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns, including the 72-yarder on the opening possession. He became only the second player in team history to have at least one catch of 40 yards or more in five consecutive games.
But against the Jets, a game in which he also had four dropped passes, Coates lacerated his left hand and broke his index finger. He was never the same after that. Coates continued to play, though mainly on special teams, and caught just two passes for 14 yards the rest of the regular season.
It was a bitter disappointment for Coates and a huge problem for the Steelers, who already were without Bryant for the entire season. What’s more, they never really got anything from tight end Ladarius Green, their top free-agent signing, who appeared in only six games — and none until mid-November.
“It’s just, mentally, it beats you,” Coates said. “Your hand gets weak. You break any bone, everything around it gets weak. My hand got weak. I didn’t have the strength I had before. It just mentally beats you because you don’t have the time [to heal] because you want to keep playing.”
Despite his issues with his hand, it seemed curious the Steelers continued to use Coates as a kick returner. If they lost faith in his ability to catch passes from Ben Roethlisberger, they never seemed to lose faith in his ability to field kickoffs.
That, though, is what the Steelers want to see from Coates when he gets back. They want to see him cut down on the number of drops and convince them his problems were with his fingers, not his mental concentration. If not, he could be passed by Hunter, who, strangely, suffered from the same problem with the Tennessee Titans.
Coates is not taking a roster spot for granted.
“I never say I’m good,” Coates said. “I don’t care who you are, when you’re missing time you can never say you’re good. You always want to be out there competing with other guys. Other guys are out there showcasing their talent and I’m on the side, so it’s kind of frustrating right now. I’m not out there with my team. I want to show them I’m capable of playing still.”
Gerry Dulac: gdulac@post-gazette.com.
First Published: August 15, 2017, 8:14 p.m.
Updated: August 16, 2017, 3:44 a.m.
