With Calvin Austin III on the roster, the Steelers shouldn’t worry about 49ers WR Jauan Jennings, reporter Mark Kaboly believes. As per annual tradition, a San Francisco wide receiver is not happy with his contract status. While the Steelers nearly traded for Brandon Aiyuk last year, should they have interest in Jennings?
“Let me interject. If you’re going to go after Jauan Jennings, why don’t you believe in Calvin Austin?”, the Steelers beat writers said on 93.7 The Fan. Granted, at the time, he misheard the stats Jennings recorded that his hosts read back to him. But even once corrected, he reiterated, “I would much rather roll with Calvin Austin at this point in time”.
A former seventh-round pick out of Tennessee, Jauan Jennings only has one season of significant production. Amid wide receiver injuries, Jennings played nearly 700 snaps in 2024. On 113 targets, he caught 77 passes for 975 yards and six touchdowns.
In comparison, Calvin Austin played roughly 600 snaps but did not play as a top target like Jennings. On just 58 targets—roughly half—he caught 36 passes for 548 yards and four touchdowns. While it’s only somewhat illuminating, Austin would have outproduced Jennings at that rate on the same targets.
Extrapolating from Jennings’ targets, if Austin saw the same with the Steelers, he would have caught 70 passes for 1,068 yards and eight touchdowns. But that assumes Austin would have produced at the same pace in a different role, which is unlikely.
“I just worry about a guy that just has one year and basically trying to get a money grab”, Kaboly said of Jauan Jennings. In his first three seasons, Jennings caught 78 passes for 963 yards and seven touchdowns. Granted, those are better numbers than Calvin Austin has in his two-year playing career, very similar per-season statistically.
While Kaboly wasn’t sold on the idea of the Steelers chasing Jennings, he did allow for the possibility. “I’m sure they would be interested just to see what the price was”, he said, but maintained Austin as preference. “I think it’s all set up for Austin to have a pretty decent season who doesn’t really need to be that de facto two”.
Jauan Jennings would give the Steelers another big target, the opposite of Calvin Austin. Where Austin is 5-9, Jennings is half a foot taller at 6-3. Austin weighs 162 pounds, compared to Jennings at 212—50 pounds heavier.
One thing they both have in common is that they have had to wait their turn. Jauan Jennings played behind Deebo Samuel and Aiyuk, where Calvin Austin played behind former Steelers George Pickens and Diontae Johnson. Jennings saw a bigger role last year due to injury, but Austin could be the Steelers’ outright No. 2 WR.
