While Calvin Austin III caught a touchdown in the Steelers’ season opener, that apparently wasn’t his favorite catch in New Jersey. At least, it wasn’t his most validating reception. Instead, it was a back-shoulder catch late in the second quarter into the red zone, setting up a touchdown. The circumstances aren’t why, but rather, how he made the catch.
Working against former Ravens DB Brandon Stephens, Austin showed out with a contested catch. As he explained on Cam Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast, it was the culmination of his focus for the offseason. He wanted to improve his game in that area, approaching this year with a different mindset.
“Going into this season, especially expanding upon last season, just continuing to make those contested catches and to just run my routes with more precision”, Austin said of what he worked on improving in 2025. “That’s why, honestly for me, that catch that I did have down toward the red zone was pretty big for me. Because that was something that I have been going into this season working on.”
The pass from Aaron Rodgers wasn’t going to come to Calvin Austin — he had to go get it. Timing his jump, he elevated over Stephens, who kept his back to the ball. While Stephens did well to get his right arm through Austin’s hands, he refused to let go. With a final twist, he wrestled the ball into his mitts for a big play.
“When the ball’s in the air, yes I have the ability to use late hands and stuff,” Austin said.
Late hands is when a receiver, playing a defender with his back to the ball, intentionally delays his reaction to play the ball until the last moment to prevent the defender from reading his body and making a play on the ball himself.
“But one of my best traits is my ability to jump and my strong hands,” Austin said. “There’s a time to use late hands as a receiver, but sometimes, it’s time to just go up and attack the ball.”
Calvin Austin is not the biggest receiver in the league — quite the opposite, in fact. He’s just a normal-sized human playing in a big man’s game. But with each passing year, he is showing that he can play bigger than his frame implies. Granted, the interior tends to be a smaller man’s game. But you only have to be bigger than the guy you’re going up against. On that play, he was.
That was one of four receptions for Austin on the day, totaling 70 yards and a touchdown. He debuted as the Steelers’ No. 2 WR against the Jets and held up quite well. That was, perhaps in part, due to his new attitude for this season.
“My mindset starting off is, I’m just gonna go up and attack every ball that’s either back shoulder or underthrown in any capacity,” he said.
That’s what he did here, and he made the play. Here’s to many more.
