On Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Steelers announced that rookie wide receiver Calvin Austin III has returned to practice. Austin missed the entire preseason and all of the regular season to this point with a foot injury.
The way things work with this is Austin will remain on IR and the Steelers are now on the clock. The team can let Austin practice with the team for 21 days to determine if Austin is healthy enough to rejoin the team. If he isn’t activated by the end of the 21-day window he will not be able to be on the roster this season.
Pittsburgh got a bargain when they drafted the speedy Austin in the fourth round of the 2022 NFL draft. If Austin is able to return, he would give Pittsburgh that rare type of speed the roster doesn’t have now and so many high-powered passing games rely on.
