What receiver Kevin Austin hoped to accomplish at Notre Dame pro day
If you didn’t know Notre Dame wide receiver Kevin Austin before the NFL Combine, chances are you do now.
The 6-2 ¾, 209-pound wideout first improved his status on the ever-changing NFL map with an official 4.43 40 time on March 3. After working his way through the remaining drills, Austin was dubbed by several outlets to have been a “winner” at the combine.
“Teams were happy, obviously,” Austin said. “I kind of preached that I wanted (to be in the low 4.4 range), and I was within that. I’ve consistently been hitting that number in practice, going lower or higher. That was a good number for me at the combine, so I didn’t want to run it again.”
So what did he want to accomplish on Friday when Notre Dame hosted its pro day at the Irish Athletic Center?
“Route running, specifically,” Austin said “Just showing them I’m a route runner in different positions, both outside and in the slot.”
Austin was out wide for the vast majority of his 2021 snaps. According to Pro Football Focus, he ran a total of 390 in-game routes last season — which was second on the team — and 319 were outside (78.2 percent). Avery Davis and Lorenzo Styles Jr. were Notre Dame’s primary slot receivers.
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After the routine height, weight, arms and wingspan measures on Friday, Austin was able to sit back and relax. There was no 40-yard dash, there was no shuttle. He was able to wait for quarterback Jack Coan to begin throwing to him, his favorite part of the game.
“It was amazing, having to focus on just route running and not having to focus on the 40, shuttle or bench,” Austin said. “It’s just great being able to be a football player.”
Should the drops be a concern?
Austin had an issue with dropped passes in 2021. Per PFF, he had five on the year. The wideout had a couple more on Friday.
Perhaps some of that — at least early in the season — can be attributed to rust, as Austin’s college career has been anything but smooth with suspensions and injuries. Three of the five drops came in the first five games of Notre Dame’s year.
Austin elaborated on the issue on Friday.
“I have a tendency to try to run before I catch sometimes, so I just need to focus on catching first, then running,” the receiver said. “Of course, I expected to be perfect. But at the same time, they were just focus drops. I wasn’t going to let that deter me from the rest of the route throwing session.”
Austin will be preparing for the April 28-30th NFL Draft in South Bend, with a trip back home to South Florida scheduled to participate in a Miami Dolphins pro day. He is about to begin a series of meetings with teams who are primarily interested in where he would fit into their respective organizations.
“Just my role on the team, whether that’s being a special teams guy or a guy that can help out in the receiver room,” Austin said of previous meetings and forecasting future ones. “They’re just focusing on what my role is and how to make me a better receiver.”
