Broncos not underestimating rest of Steelers "talented" receiving corps

On Friday morning, the news came out that Steelers All-World receiver, Antonio Brown, would miss Sunday’s divisional round playoff game against the Denver Broncos with a concussion. While, of course, they never want to see one of their colleagues out with an injury, Gary Kubiak, Wade Phillips and the entire Broncos secondary certainly all breathed a sigh of relief.

That being said, though, the Broncos aren’t naive enough to overlook the rest of the Steelers weapons, two of which, Martavis Bryant and Markus Wheaton, went for a combined 16 catches and 149 yards the last time these two teams matched up.

“They’ve got great receivers,” said cornerback Aqib Talib.  “A.B. is not playing, but they’ve still got Martavis. They’ve still got Wheaton. They’ve still got [No.] 88 [WR Darrius Heyward-Bey]. They’ve still got a bunch of speed, a bunch of talented guys on the field, and they’ve still got Ben Roethlisberger. We know we’ve still got to do our part.”

Speed is definitely the strength of the remaining three, with Bryant, Wheaton and Heyward-Bay averaging a 4.39 40-yard dash time in their respective combines, and Broncos corner Bradley Roby knows the Steelers will try to use that.

“They just do their job. The offensive coordinator does a good job of using them to their strengths,” he explained. “They do it well. Ben is a great quarterback. Anytime you have a great quarterback, he’s going to get it to you on the money, so as long as you get to your route, get to your spot, then you’ll be good. They’re great supplements to [No.] 84 [Antonio Brown].”

“They spread the field. They threw it, what, 59 times against us last time we played or something like that,” added Kubiak. “The ball went all over the place. They’ve got a lot of guys that can make plays. One thing about [Steelers QB] Ben [Roethlisberger], Ben is going to attack coverage. That’s what he’s going to do. Like I said, our preparation has been for their offense.”

While, between the lines, it looks like even a banged up Ben Roethlisberger is what truly scares the defense, the Broncos know they would bee foolish to overlook three guys who combined for nearly 2,000 yards in Brown’s shadow.