While they are not depending upon his health and development, the Pittsburgh Steelers are optimistic and excited about the prospect of getting wide receiver Calvin Austin III on the field later this year. A 2022 fourth-round draft pick out of Memphis, he spent the entirety of his rookie season on the Reserve/Injured List after suffering a foot injury the day before the team’s first preseason game.
The Steelers tried to get Austin working again midseason coming out of the bye week, but he aggravated the injury and wound up not only staying on reserve, but also settling in for surgery, from which he continues to recover.
Indeed, although he is back on the field and running around with his teammates, he also understands that how he feels and how he is aren’t necessarily the same thing. Brian Batko shared in his chat yesterday something the second-year receiver said to him last week. “He told me Wednesday that while he feels 100%, there’s also another gear he can hit”, he wrote.
As outsiders, of course, we have no idea what he looks like right now or any visual way of confirming it. But it’s interesting to hear Austin talk about feeling as though he is fully healthy and yet recognizing that there is still more in him to tap.
Of course, he is less than eight months removed from having foot surgery, so it shouldn’t in any way be a surprise if a wide receiver whose primary trait is speed might not be fully back to where he was before the injury in that timeline.
It’s actually something another current Steelers wide receiver, also recovering from foot surgery, also talked about. Allen Robinson II appeared on the Rich Eisen Show yesterday and talked about recovery being a two-step process. First is getting healthy, and then it’s getting back to yourself. Austin may be healthy, but he’s not himself just yet.
At the same time, we don’t even know who he is yet, at least not as a professional football player. Nobody has ever seen him play inside of a stadium as a professional, because he was literally injured the day before he was supposed to do so for the first time in his life.
And that brings us back to the beginning of this topic, because the Steelers understand that they can’t rely on or depend upon him being there, or even being good. Because they simply don’t know if he will be there, or if he is, if he will be any good.
He is now ostensibly healthy. The next step is continuing to work to get back to being himself. Then he has to make the roster. Assuming he makes it that far, what comes next is trying to establish a role for himself on the team. All of it is doable, certainly, but none of it can be taken for granted.
But if he finds that last gear and gets on the field, watch out.
