Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: WR Calvin Austin III
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: The second-year wide receiver caught his first touchdown of his NFL career, and it came in style, a 72-yard bomb from draft classmate Kenny Pickett. After missing his rookie season due to injury, he has been emerging nicely so far, especially in the absence of Diontae Johnson.
You’re already well into crapshoot territory in the NFL draft by the time you hit the third day, beginning with the fourth round. While plenty of players will work out, the hit-to-miss ratio begins to climb pretty steadily as you begin to take more players with less complete resumes or bigger question marks.
Like a 5-foot-8 wide receiver who weighs less than your average high schooler. Take that frame, make him a wide receiver, mark speed as his defining trait, and then watch him suffer a season-ending foot injury, and tell me how good you feel about him going into his second season.
And yet, three games into his Steelers career, I think almost every fan would say that they are pleased with what they have seen from Austin so far. That’s easy to say right after he catches a 72-yard touchdown pass, the Steelers’ longest offensive play since 2020, but he has been consistently flashing since the second day of training camp.
While it’s extremely gratifying to see his speed and quickness translate to an NFL game in the manner hoped for, equally impressive has been his completeness. He is about the most willing blocker at the NFL level of his size that I can recall seeing in recent memory.
One gets the sense that Austin is just a kid who loves the game of football and loves the opportunity to play it at the highest level. And he’s also someone who understands what it feels like to have it taken away from you after sitting out all of last season due to his foot injury, so you can bet he’s not taking any opportunity for granted.
Speaking of opportunities, he has been afforded an extended look thanks to Diontae Johnson’s hamstring injury in the second half of the opener. Austin has played 121 snaps already through three games, including over 40 in each of the past two weeks. While his 72-yard touchdown is the outlier, he does have nine total receptions on the season for 119 yards. He’s also offered flashes as a punt returner, though his best return thus far was negated by a penalty.
