As Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Tim Patrick, Adam Thielen and several other receivers moved around the league after roster cutdowns, the Pittsburgh Steelers stood pat with their WR room. A large reason for that is how much they seem to like their top receivers. They barely got to see Calvin Austin III throughout training camp, but he appears to be back to full health, according to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo.
“Calvin Austin looks like he’s back to almost a hundred percent,” Fittipaldo said Friday via 93.7 The Fan’s Pomp and Joe Show. “He’s gonna be available Week 1. Aaron [Rodgers] has talked at length about both those guys [including Roman Wilson], how much they’ve impressed him this summer. So maybe there’s a notion they wanna see how these guys play before they go out and make a move.”
Austin suffered an undisclosed injury on Aug. 1 during the Steelers’ Friday Night Lights practice. Aaron Rodgers later described it as an oblique issue, which tracks with the lack of a visible brace or cast in photos of Austin over the last month.
He started working his way back to practice during the last week of the preseason and seems to now be a full participant with the first game just nine days away.
Mark Kaboly, who previously reported the Steelers’ renewed interest in adding a receiver, followed that up after cutdown day by saying their search is over after they missed out on Valdes-Scantling. They are happy with what they have. I don’t know how both could be true if they wanted to add another receiver just days ago, but the Steelers have been speaking highly of their WR group all offseason. GM Omar Khan has shot down the notion that it’s a similar situation to last season several times.
Calvin Austin III is the team’s intended No. 2 receiver, and Wilson did enough during the preseason to solidify himself as a top contributor on offense. Pair that with the combination of Jonnu Smith, Pat Freiermuth, Darnell Washington and even Kenneth Gainwell, and the Steelers have a lot of mouths to feed in the passing game.
No receiver they would be adding at this point would move the needle for me. They have 10 weeks to see what they have with their current group before they have to make a decision at the trade deadline. Maybe they could get a more meaningful contributor then, if needed.
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