Chances are many of you who read this site on a regular basis are not just Pittsburgh Steelers fans but also football fans in general. Many of you will have watched QB Aaron Rodgers’ extremely brief debut last night with the New York Jets in what turned out to be a thrilling overtime victory over the Buffalo Bills.
And many of you likely saw the incredible underdog story of Xavier Gipson, an undrafted rookie whose name most people who know it probably only know from watching the Jets’ season of Hard Knocks earlier this year.
Well, a lot more people know it now after recording a 65-yard punt return touchdown in overtime to end the game in favor of a Jets team that could have phoned it in after losing their star quarterback practically before even having him to begin with.
But most of you who are reading this will undoubtedly be Steelers fans. And when you saw or heard or read about Gipson’s moment, if you’re anything like me, it probably got you thinking about the Steelers’ own Calvin Austin III.
Not because he’s some incredible underdog story, but because he has the potential to be a deadly weapon as a returner, too. He showed that during the preseason, combining the shiftiness of a Diontae Johnson with a long speed in the return game the Steelers haven’t had since Stefan Logan, who still owns the team’s single-season kick return yardage and total return yardage records.
However, if the first game is anything to go by, the big problem might be forcing teams to actually punt. The San Francisco 49ers only punted three times in the opener, and the first punt did not come until 13:25 into the second quarter.
And Austin didn’t have much of a chance to do anything with them. One went out of bounds, another was downed inside the 10-yard line. He only returned one and gained all of two yards on it. That one bounced at the 7-yard line but looked like it would die inside the five, so he grabbed it just to get what he could.
The Steelers got an All-Pro punt returner out of Johnson as a rookie in 2019 before he became too important on offense to continue in that role. Austin has similar traits that made Johnson successful as a returner, plus elite speed on top of it.
If Pittsburgh can actually set him up with some quality chances for returns, there is no reason that he couldn’t deliver the same sort of impact that Gipson gave the Jets, should he ever have the opportunity to deliver on such a stage.
In the meantime, he can simply help to provide the offense with better field position during more routine moments. They can use every extra yard they can get, it seems.
