Ben Roethlisberger has a Twitter account, but he always makes it clear that he doesn't run the account. He steers clear of social media, completely and totally.
But he couldn't help but hear what went on after Sunday's win over the Bengals, when Martavis Bryant made negative comments on social media regarding his role in the offense, later deleting it, and then posting something positive.
Roethlisberger said the comments surprised him, because that isn't the Bryant he sees on the field.
"You never hear him complain," said Roethlisberger, who said he hadn't talked to Bryant about the comments as of Wednesday morning. "I don't hear him on the field crying, complaining, throwing his hands up, or not running hard. You see him blocking after other guys catch the ball or during runs. I catch him on the sideline and talk to him about the pictures, like I do with a lot of guys. He is very engaging. That is why all of this was kind of a shock to me."
Bryant had one reception against the Bengals, a three-yard catch, and was thrown to twice. For the season he has 18 receptions for 234 yards and one touchdown.
"We need to get lots of footballs to him, to everybody," said Roethlisberger. "We all need to score points because that helps us win game. We have had opportunities. We had a couple of deep balls that were just missed. Whether it's me overthrowing him. Whether it's the Chicago game where he slows down a little bit. Whether it's this last game where he doesn't see the ball come out of my hands. The plays are there to be had, we just have to make them.
"Maybe it's on me. I need to maybe give him a better ball to make a play. I will put it on myself first. I am not going to blame him. A couple of those deep balls, if I let him run under them more maybe he will get them."
His contributions, though, have been visible in other manners, including blocking for the run and passing games. * "*
Martavis is out there busting his butt," said Roethlisberger. "On Le'Veon's (Bell) long play he is downfield blocking. He is blocking for AB (Antonio Brown) in the Kanas City game. You hear the frustrations when he goes home and gets on social media. Here in the locker room we don't see any of that.
"That is why I don't do social media. Not too many good things have come from it from what I've seen. I like to show pictures of my family and things like that, but you can get caught up in a game with somebody that sits behind a phone or a computer, they call them trolls. There's a lot of things you can get caught up in if you are not careful. I think the best thing is to stay away from it."
More from Ben:
On what JuJu Smith-Schuster brings with his youthful exuberance:
"I think he is the youngest guy in the NFL, and sometimes he acts like it, which is fun. He brings a youthfulness to this locker room which has an older feel to it with all of the linemen and myself. It's fun. The celebrations and his silliness. What I like about him the most is you can talk to him and he can almost snap out of it real quick and become a mature football player that is disciplined, wants to hear it, and you can help him. Then you will go out to walkthrough and you throw a pass and he will dive for it, do something silly. It's kind of fun."
On the Lions defense:
"They are very opportunistic. A lot of turnovers. Balls are tipped, they catch them. It doesn't seem like a ball that is in the air ever hits the ground. They have a good pass rush, with four guys, sometimes adding a fifth. I think one of the biggest challenges is going to be on third down. You might not see the same coverage in the secondary two third downs period throughout the whole game. What a challenge for us."
On what he sees from the team at the halfway point:
"I think there is a lot of resilience. The defense is playing really good football. The offense hasn't played up to our potential yet. We are doing just enough to get by right now. I think the last two weeks have been good, positive steps forward and hopefully we can continue that."
On if the quarterback sneak is still an option:
"I don't know why it's not. I have never not asked for it. I think quarterback sneak is a great play on the goal line, third, fourth and one. We haven't done it in years. I don't know why.
"It's an easy play. Sometimes you have a nose tackle, linebacker standing up there it's not the best thing. There are a lot of times it can be used to. I would love to do it."
