Calvin Austin Mentoring Steelers Next Playmaker

Despite missing last season, Calvin Austin is embracing a veteran role with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers were ready to make Calvin Austin a star in 2022, but an untimely injury shut down the rookie's first NFL season. Now, he's looking to make a name for himself in year two while also embracing the role veterans gave him last season. 

Austin's return to the field started in OTAs, where he's picked up where he left off last summer. Despite not playing last year, he took full advantage of being around the team, soaking in every moment of a season and using it to familiarize himself with the way of the NFL. 

"It most definitely helped the process," Austin told All Steelers about preparing his mind last season. "Even when I was traveling to the games at the beginning of the year, I would go out and catch with Lou, one of our trainers, he would throw, and he was like telling me about when you first get to the stadium, looking at the lights. These are stadiums I've never been, I didn't play in big stadiums in college, these new stadium lights, all that stuff, so just giving me a lay of the land and I'm seeing how guys prepare for the game. Just being around that is, like I said, I honestly feel like I was going through it as well. I'm waking up and eating breakfast, getting on the bus, you know, it was the same. I'm getting my mind prepared and ready to go out with them and stuff. It just makes this feels, like I said, like I got a year under my belt."

Entering year two, he wants to make a splash. He also wants to allow others to lean on him, much like he did vets last season. And the player trying to learn from the second-year wideout is undrafted rookie Jordan Byrd. 

"I think of it how it was last year when I first got here. Gunner (Olszewski) and Steve (Sims), they took me under their wing, and anytime we're back there for punt, they telling me stuff. Kick return, they telling me stuff. Slot, they telling me stuff. They immediately took me under their wing, giving me tips," Austin said. "So, we got a guy like Jordan, who we have a similar build, skill set. So it's like, I'm gonna do the same thing that Steve and Gunner did for me. I'm gonna help him as much as possible. It's kind of weird when people act a certain way or something, but I'm like, however I can help, I'm gonna help because, at the end of the day, we're all in this together, and if you believe in yourself and your skills and stuff, you're not gonna be worried about anybody else, everything else is gonna play itself out if you just do what you're supposed to do. So that's what I think of. I'm gonna help however I can."

Byrd came to Pittsburgh without much experience as a wide receiver. Working as a running back at San Diego State, the 5'9 speedster made the transition as he entered the NFL Draft, looking to land a spot on the Steelers roster as a playmaker. 

"Moving to wide receiver is a big change for me, but I'm really enjoying it," Byrd told All Steelers. "Learning the game, learning new things, it's really fun to me. ... Playing running back, I knew I wasn't the biggest dude out there, but I knew that moving into the NFL, I was gonna change positions, and that's one thing that I was looking forward to and was ready to do."

The transition to wideout will take plenty of work but should be worth it for Byrd, who's a sleeper to make the Steelers' 53-man roster. He'll also work as a returner, competing with Austin for another role on the team. 

The competition will heat up as the summer progresses, but the two teammates are excited about each other growing and seeing where camp takes them both. 

As for Austin, embracing the mentorship role means looking at competition differently. It's a philosophy the entire receiver room holds because if everyone thrives, no one can be upset about the outcome. 

"We're all competitors, so we compete regardless, but it's football, so I feel like, at the end of the day, we know this is a business, and we know that even in the receiver room, no matter how tight we are, we're still competing against each other. That's just the logistics of the game we play," Austin said. "But we kind of have a mindset where, 'Okay y'all, let's get together and let's go out and kill the defense.' So, it's competition for sure, but that's really out of our control. That's for the coaches to decide. Us, we're trying to come together, help each other out. I want Gunner to have the best practice. Cody (White) to have the best practice. (Allen Robinson), I want everybody to have the best practice. That means we all balled out, we killed the defense, we fly, we good, and all the other stuff is gonna work itself out. But we have a mindset we want to group together and kill whoever we're going against. So, I think that's kind of the mindset that we have in it. I love it too because I can just tell that we're definitely bonding and getting closer as a group."

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