LATROBE, Pa. -- The Pittsburgh Steelers have listed Martavis Bryant as a first-string wide receiver on the depth chart, but it's easy to forget that him staying there for Week 1 is beating the odds in a major way.

Since 2010, only one of 11 players who served at least a year-long substance abuse suspension -- defensive tackle John Jolly -- returned to NFL play, according to ESPN Stats & Information. That doesn't count at least five players suspended since January 2016: Bryant, Silas Redd, Rolando McClain, Randy Gregory and Justin Gilbert. (The NFL doesn't track suspensions for the media.)

Bryant is very close to becoming the second to return. He's cleared for preseason games and is awaiting word from the league on the regular season. If he continues to pass his drug tests, the expectation is the league will loosen the conditional reinstatement in time for it to matter on Sundays.

For every success story such as Ricky Williams in the 2000s, there's a Josh Gordon or Aldon Smith, who failed to consistently showcase their immense talents.

That's in part why Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert wants, on a personal level, to see Bryant's career take off.

"I will say this for the kid -- Martavis is a good kid that made some mistakes in his life," Colbert said. "I know he's a good son, I know he's a good father. He knows he has challenges that he has to continue to overcome and if he does, he can have a great career and that will be great for him and certainly help us.

"I want to see him save his career more than anything. He's not a bad person, he's just a person who's had some issues where they were his fault and there's no getting around that. He knows that, we know that. But I also know he's trying, and really trying to make himself not only a better player but a better person in regards to those issues."

So far, Bryant seems to be following his own playbook. He talks often of "maintaining my sobriety," which he says he has done for more than a year. He has cleared every hurdle the NFL has requested since conditionally reinstating him in April. And he looks eager to prove himself on the field.

Bryant's mere presence heightens excitement for the Steelers' offense, which has seen the quartet of Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, Le'Veon Bell and Bryant share the same field for exactly 21 minutes of the regular season since 2015.

Colbert doesn't know how the four will do together because they haven't done it much. But he likes their chances.

"You may have a Hall of Fame quarterback, an All-Pro receiver, an All-Pro runner and a big-play receiver that's been off and on the squad, but how they come together, how they play, we won't know until they do it," Colbert said. "You don't know if they will. That's the thing you go into. You hope for that and want it to be there. Until it happens, we can't judge how good they can be."

With 15 touchdowns in 21 NFL games, Bryant knows how good he can be, and he's ready to show Colbert and anyone else.

"Definitely something special," Bryant said of the offense's potential.