Calvin
Austin III.
Calvin
Austin III.
Memphis· 5'8"· 170 lb· 4.32s 40
"A walk-on turned two-time All-AAC receiver and All-America sprinter who ran 4.32 at 173 pounds, and whose entire evaluation came down to whether that frame could take an NFL season."Pre-draft read
Austin is a 5-foot-8 slot receiver and punt returner whose game is pure acceleration. He reaches top speed in two steps, stems vertically to force a cushion and then breaks it off, and he turns a shallow crosser into a chunk play because nobody wants to square him up in space.
He tracks the deep ball well for his size and adjusts to the throw in flight rather than drifting, which is why Memphis threw him go routes and post shots instead of only screens. Contact is the other side of the evaluation: he cannot survive a physical press rep and can be rerouted out of a play entirely. The signature is the return game, where the burst that made him a nine-time high school state sprint champion makes every catch a threat to score.
A vertical spread offense that puts speed in the slot with a free release and threatens the middle of the field, where his acceleration stresses safeties rather than press corners.
Year 1: punt returner and gadget slot on 20 snaps a game. Ceiling: a 60-catch field-stretching slot who is also the best return man on the roster.
A heavy play-action offense that asks its receivers to block safeties on the edge and win outside against press corners, where his weight makes him a liability on two downs.
He has to be schemed free releases; every evaluation of him hinges on how a coordinator handles his first five yards.
Calvin Austin III 2021 Highlights | Memphis WR
Senior-season reel: vertical releases, deep tracking and the run-after-catch burst.
Memphis WR Calvin Austin III Highlights
Full college cutup built around the track speed and the punt return work.
Calvin Austin III All-22 Film Breakdown
All-22 pre-draft breakdown of his releases, route stems and limitations against press.
Austin arrived at Memphis as a walk-on and left as a two-time first-team All-AAC receiver and an All-American on the Tigers' 4x100 relay team. He is one of the few genuine track athletes in the class whose speed showed up as football speed rather than as straight-line noise, and the production backed it: 63 catches for 1,053 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2020, then 74 for 1,149 and eight more as a senior, leading his team in catches, yards and scores both years.
The combine confirmed everything. He measured 5-foot-7 3/4 and 173 pounds, ran 4.32, jumped 39 inches vertically and broad jumped 11-foot-3, the longest broad jump by a player his size on record at the event. On tape he also returned punts, including a 93-yard touchdown against Mississippi State, and took his only carry of 2021 69 yards to the end zone.
The evaluation was entirely about the frame. At 173 pounds with 30-inch arms he projected as a slot-only receiver who would struggle against press, offer nothing as a blocker and carry durability risk on any hit taken over the middle. Teams who valued the speed as a field-tilting weapon had him in the third; teams who graded him strictly by size had him later. Pittsburgh, which had drafted George Pickens 86 picks earlier and needed a return man, took the speed at 138.
- 01
Elite burst
a 4.32 forty with a 1.50 ten-yard split, which lets him eat a corner's cushion within two steps and turn any clean release into a vertical threat.
- 02
Explosive testing
a 39-inch vertical and an 11-foot-3 broad jump at 173 pounds, the longest broad jump recorded by a player of his height at the combine.
- 03
Deep ball tracking
locates and adjusts to the ball over his shoulder rather than drifting, which turned Memphis post and go routes into completed shot plays.
- 04
Return value
an immediate punt returner with a 93-yard touchdown against Mississippi State, giving him a roster role independent of the receiver depth chart.
- 05
Production and toughness
156 catches for 2,541 yards and 22 touchdowns, leading Memphis in all three categories in each of his final two seasons.
- 01
Size and play strength
5-foot-7 3/4 and 173 pounds with 30-inch arms, which caps his catch radius and leaves him unable to win a contested ball outside.
- 02
Press vulnerability
a physical corner can get hands on him at the line and reroute him out of the concept entirely, which limits him to free releases in the slot.
- 03
Durability risk
the frame invites injury over the middle, and the projection assumed he would need to be protected from high-volume contact usage.
- 04
Blocking
offers almost nothing in the run game on the perimeter, making him easy for defenses to treat as a pass-down tell when he is on the field.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.32sp50
- Vertical
- 39inp50
- Broad jump
- 135inp50
- Three-cone
- 6.65sp50
- Shuttle
- 4.07sp50
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Memphis | — | 2 | 24 | 0 |
| 2019 | Memphis | — | 17 | 315 | 3 |
| 2020 | Memphis | 11 | 63 | 1053 | 11 |
| 2021 | Memphis | 12 | 74 | 1149 | 8 |
| Career | — | 23 | 156 | 2541 | 22 |
The 2020 and 2021 seasons are taken directly from cfbstats (Memphis team 404, player 1087608): 11 games with 63 catches for 1,053 yards and 11 touchdowns, then 12 games with 74 catches for 1,149 yards and eight touchdowns. cfbstats does not publish player pages for him before 2020, so the 2018 and 2019 receiving lines come from Sports-Reference. Games played in 2018 and 2019 are left unverified because Sports-Reference and other databases disagree on those figures, so the career games total is also left blank rather than estimated. He redshirted in 2017, which is not listed as a season. The four receiving seasons sum exactly to the career totals of 156 catches, 2,541 yards and 22 touchdowns.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
A fast, tiny slot and returner who carves out a long career as a fourth receiver and core special teams weapon.
The ceiling: an undersized speed receiver who becomes a full-time starter by refining routes and pairing them with elite return value.
The downside: a track-speed small receiver whose lack of size and press answers keeps him from ever earning a real offensive role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The first year vanished. Austin suffered a foot injury in the 2022 preseason and spent his entire rookie season on injured reserve without playing a snap. He debuted in 2023 as the fourth receiver and punt returner with 17 catches for 180 yards, added 11 carries for 57 yards, and handled 29 punt returns. The 2024 season was his best: eight starts, 36 catches for 548 yards and four touchdowns at 15.2 yards a catch, plus a 73-yard punt return touchdown. In 2025 he played 14 games with seven starts and 31 catches for 372 yards and three scores as the offense changed around him.
Through four seasons he has 48 games, 16 starts, 84 catches for 1,100 yards and eight touchdowns, and 639 punt return yards with a return score. He signed with the Giants for 2026 and was placed on injured reserve with a knee injury in September before playing a game. That is a fair return for pick 138: a real contributor as a third or fourth receiver and a returner, exactly the ceiling the size questions predicted, with the durability flag showing up more than once.