Instant Grade: Giants Signing WR Calvin Austin III a Good Sign for Their Receiving Depth

One of the biggest blows that the New York Giants took in the first phase of free agency was the departure of slot receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, who earned a lofty contract from the Tennessee Titans on the heels of his first 1,000-yard season.

The Giants wanted to keep Robinson, who rose to the receiving leader after Malik Nabers went down with an ACL injury during the 2025 season, but they weren’t going to pay the high price tag to a player whose size normally confines him to working as a short-range threat out of the slot.

Losing the former second-round pick still put a large gap in the team’s wide receiver depth, a position that was also mostly lackluster on the gridiron without Nabers. The Giants needed to make a veteran addition and did so by signing Calvin Austin III to a one-year deal worth up to $4.5 million.

The Giants were clearly looking for a free agent receiver who they could sign for a cheap payout and could do more than just fill in an empty space on the depth chart, and Austin’s career has shown him to be that type of player.

Although his rookie season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who drafted him in the fourth round of the 2023 draft, was totally nullified by a preseason foot injury, the 26-year-old has only missed three games in the last two seasons while blossoming into a sturdy pass catcher.

Austin finished as the second-leading receiver in the Steelers’ corps last season, logging 31 receptions on 55 targets for 372 yards and three touchdowns.

His most clutch touchdown catch came in the Week 18 finale against new head coach John Harbaugh’s old squad in the Baltimore Ravens, clinching the contest for the black and yellow team to advance to the playoffs.

The 5-foot-9, 162-pound Austin, who holds 84 career receptions on 163 targets for 1,100 yards and eight touchdowns, likely won’t be running as many routes on the perimeter as he lacks the right combination of height and long arms for a broader catch radius.

What he will bring to the table for the Giants is superb speed and twitchy change of direction that will serve him well as a slot receiver, asked to run short routes and get open quickly.

The Giants want to put opponents on their heels with speed and explosiveness, and Austin can help with the latter as a capable replacement for Robinson.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Matt Nagy utilize Austin’s skillset in jet sweeps and other motion plays to try to draw the defense offside and create confusion before the snap. He has taken 11 handoffs for 57 yards and a touchdown, scored during the 2024 season.

Above all, the Giants shouldn’t have to worry about the typical case of the drops with Austin in their arsenal. He has only dropped six targets in three seasons and caught at least four contested targets in each of the last two seasons, meaning he knows how to keep the ball out of harm’s way.

As things stand before spring practices and training camp, Austin figures to slot into the WR3 role behind a hopefully healthy Nabers and Darius Slayton, but a lot could change based on whether the Giants target a rookie pass catcher in the draft.

They also brought back Isaiah Hodgins in free agency and are hoping to see rookie Beaux Collins have an improved summer after most of his first year dealt with injury woes when he looked like he had some potential in his first training camp.

What will truly be an interesting factor to watch for is whether Austin, who has experience as a punt returner with 72 returns for 639 yards and one touchdown, gets the chance to compete with Gunner Olszewski, who was also re-signed as a free agent, for that same role.

The Steelers didn’t have the league's best return units last season, but Harbaugh is dead set on not letting that phase of the game remain a continued weakness, as it was in 2025 for the Giants.

The Giants have already made moves to bring in a new punter (Jordan Stout), kicker (Jason Sanders), and will be adding a new long snapper after Casey Kreiter was not re-signed to his long-held position.

If Harbaugh believes his squad needs some juice to be impactful in that phase of the game, he could hand the reins over to Austin as the speedier threat and let him put the Giants offense into solid field positions to start their possessions.

Grade: A-

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