While the Pittsburgh Steelers’ actual licking of their wounds will be purely figurative, the wounds are both figurative and literal. Not only were they handed an embarrassing loss last Sunday by the San Francisco 49ers, they have a couple of significant injuries to contend with that will sideline a pair of Pro Bowlers for an indefinite period of time.
That includes veteran WR Diontae Johnson, who injured his hamstring while making a play for an offense that was very badly in need of it early in the third quarter. He is expected to miss at least a few weeks, in the meantime of which second-year Calvin Austin III should take on a more prominent role. CB Patrick Peterson is ready to see that.
“We all know Calvin has top-end speed. He can run past anybody. But now he’s probably gonna be in a different role”, he told reporters yesterday, via Amanda Godsey. “He’s probably gonna have to run a bit more routes now versus what his role was when Diontae was in the lineup. It’s gonna be interesting to see how Calvin grows up this week, because now he has his big boy pants on. I’m excited to see him work. He had a great spring and training camp, so now it’s time for him to go out there and put it to work”.
Austin made his NFL debut on Sunday after missing his entire rookie season due to a foot injury. He caught all six targets in his direction, although they only produced a total of 37 yards. While he was also the starting punt returner, he only returned one for two yards—merely an effort to improve inevitably poor field position on a punt that was destined to settle inside the 5-yard line.
But we could hardly say that we got the full exposure to the young wide receiver’s repertoire. It didn’t help that the offense failed to move the chains for the first 28 minutes of the game. And until Johnson was knocked out of the game, Austin’s playing time was limited as the fourth receiver.
One does have to wonder what “big boy pants” look like on a 5-foot-8, 162-pound wide receiver—but then again, I suppose that was figurative as well. He did make some big-boy plays during the preseason, including a 62-yard touchdown reception, and a couple of nifty runs as a return man as well.
This past Sunday was just one game. There is still plenty of time for Austin’s story to unfold. At least for the immediate future, he should have more opportunities to showcase his abilities until Johnson is able to get back on the field.
And we’ll all be watching alongside Peterson with keen interest to see how it looks. Can he continue to translate his success to higher and higher stages? His first major test will be against CBs Denzel Ward and Greg Newsome II of the Cleveland Browns—no easy task, especially with Myles Garrett and Za’Darius Smith sniffing around the quarterback.
