John Harbaugh wanted to draft Calvin Austin III while with the Ravens, but the Steelers stole him out from under them. Now, as the head coach of the Giants, he finally has the speedy wide receiver. He signed a one-year contract with New York worth up to $4.5 million, mostly in incentives.
We don’t know what the Steelers offered Austin to stay, or if they even offered him a contract at all. Like the Ravens, Pittsburgh has undergone a near-total reconstruction of the coaching staff, though not by choice, a key difference. But what’s clear is the Steelers wanted to radically reshape the wide receiver room.
Calvin Austin was evidently not a part of that vision, but he fits a niche for John Harbaugh. With the Ravens, he always tried to have that speedy wide receiver: the Torrey Smith, Hollywood Brown, or Zay Flowers.
Could Austin be a low-rent Zay Flowers for Harbaugh’s offense in New York? He has the speed, and when he has a quarterback who can get the ball to him deep, he can make plays. We saw how George Pickens thrived in Dallas last year with better quarterback play. In New York, he’ll have second-year Jaxson Dart—and a new head coach in John Harbaugh.
Play from the 1st half stuck out to me. Ravens 24. Austin backside vs Awuzie. Austin runs hitch, Rodgers wants the out, incomplete.
Austin's GW TD. From their 26. Backside, runs the hitch, Awuzie bites, slips, Austin scores.
That mistake 1st play set up the score. Wow. pic.twitter.com/8FZhiXjpE4
— Alex Kozora (@Alex_Kozora) January 7, 2026
Speaking of which, let’s revisit. Going into the 2022 NFL Draft, Baltimore was in desperate need of wide receivers. Despite the need and a bounty of draft picks, the Ravens passed on numerous opportunities until the fourth round, when Harbaugh planned to draft Calvin Austin.
But alas, they waited too long. Making it all the more hilarious is that the Ravens made six draft picks in the fourth round that year, when the Steelers drafted Austin. And they didn’t draft a wide receiver at all. Now, that’s not to say that they didn’t do a good job. That draft class produced Tyler Linderbaum, Kyle Hamilton, Travis Jones, and Isaiah Likely, among others.
And we’re not about to pretend that Calvin Austin would have been some fortune-changing pick for Harbaugh and the Ravens. He wasn’t for the Steelers, though he could have done more if utilized better. But it’s always fun when a rival is able to, knowingly or otherwise, poach a player from the other. And it adds to the fun when the other rival—or rival coach—manages to wind up with that player.
Of course, that doesn’t always work out. In 2016, the Steelers were all set to draft CB William Jackson III before the Bengals snatched him first. They drafted Artie Burns, which they shouldn’t have. When Jackson was finally available much later in his career, he was, literally, no longer able to play. He did practice, though, briefly. Calvin Austin should give John Harbaugh better than that, at least.
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