The Pittsburgh Steelers got humiliated in primetime against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football, losing 25-10. Still, a late touchdown by Pittsburgh helped close the gap on a game that ended up becoming a blowout in the second half. The offense looked pitiful from start to finish, and plenty of blame falls on Aaron Rodgers and his poor performance. Still, the receiving corps also shoulders a fair amount of the blame as they struggled to get open throughout the contest, with no pass catcher going over 35 yards.
WR Calvin Austin III particularly struggled in a game where he was looked at early and often, seeing seven targets, but only reeled in two catches for 14 yards. Both of his catches came on easy curl route concepts, where Austin snapped back to Rodgers, being wide open in the soft spots of Los Angeles’ zone coverage, picking up short gains on both receptions.
On Austin’s missed targets, the reasoning was a mixed bag. Right after his first catch, Rodgers went back to him after Austin readjusted from a slant route to breaking back out toward the sideline at the bottom of your screen. Rodgers is pressured on the play, throwing an errant pass that Austin lays out for, but can’t reel in.
On Austin’s next target, he stretches the seam from the slot, leaning inside before looking back outside toward the sideline. Rodgers manages to step into his throw this time, but the pass is slightly behind Austin, allowing DB Niko Reed to make a play on the ball and deflect the pass for the incompletion.
The following two targets for Austin resulted in drops, with the first one below coming on another quick slant pattern over the middle. Austin lines up in the slot and gets a step of separation on Reed, but isn’t able to haul in the pass by Rodgers, which hits him in stride as S Derwin James bears down on him once the pass is thrown, giving Austin alligator arms as the pass falls incomplete.
The second drop by Austin ultimately led to a turnover for the Steelers’ offense and effectively put the game out of reach. Austin lines up at the bottom of the screen across from CB Donte Jackson. Pittsburgh runs a pick play with TE Pat Freiermuth running into a defender to free up Austin on the slant across the middle. Still, Austin misses the catch and pops the ball into the air for Jackson to catch for the pick, running back the other way for Los Angeles before running out of bounds.
Austin was named one of the losers on Sunday night by our very own Alex Kozora, and for good reason. Through nine games in 2025, operating as the team’s WR2, Austin currently has 21 receptions for 237 yards and two touchdowns, which are poor numbers, even considering the state of Pittsburgh’s offense and their passing attack.
DK Metcalf is getting double-teamed and has seen bracket coverage by several teams they face. Pittsburgh has struggled to have any pass catcher step up, including Austin, who is in a contract year and has played 290 offensive snaps so far this season. Pittsburgh has been more 13 personnel due to the fact that they don’t have a quality WR2 opposite of Metcalf on the field. While Austin has some splash plays this season, he’s better suited for a boom/bust WR3 role in an offense than being that reliable WR2 you depend on to produce consistently.
Over The Cap has Austin’s valuation of an annual contract this coming offseason at $4.332 million, which would be a fair price to pay, should he not get more attention on the open market. Still, Pittsburgh would be wise to look to upgrade at WR2 this offseason, regardless of whether they bring back Austin, either via the draft or potentially another trade.
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