Former Cowboys star Miles Austin to be Jets wide receivers coach

An undrafted free agent from a small FCS school who became one of Tony Romo’s top targets during his Cowboys career will now be teaching a room full of pass-catchers in the league’s biggest market.

Miles Austin is set to become the New York Jets’ next wide receivers coach, according to reports this week. The 36-year-old played eight seasons in Dallas, earning two Pro Bowl nods during his tenure.

Austin will be reunited with new Jets head coach Robert Saleh; the two men served on staff together last season in San Francisco. Austin acted as an offensive quality control coach during the 49ers’ 2019 Super Bowl season, while Saleh was the team’s defensive coordinator.

Austin was undrafted out of Monmouth in 2006, and signed with the Cowboys primarily as a special teams player. While he had an electrifying 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the playoffs versus Seattle as a rookie, Austin didn’t really burst onto the scene until the 2009 season. As a late replacement for the injured Roy Williams against Kansas City in Week 5, Austin exploded for 10 catches and 250 yards- breaking Bob Hayes’s franchise single-game receiving yards record- and a pair of touchdowns, including the 60-yard walk-off winner in overtime.

No. 19 assumed a starting role before the end of the season, and was rewarded with the first of back-to-back Pro Bowl nods. Over the eight seasons he wore the star, Austin tallied 301 receptions- 34 of them for scores- and 4,481 yards over 106 games.

After his release by Dallas, Austin played 2014 in Cleveland and 2015 in Philadelphia. In 2017, he was hired by the Cowboys as a scouting intern. He interviewed the following year to be the team’s wide receivers coach, but the job went to Sanjay Lal instead. Austin returned to Monmouth to complete his degree in political science, and took his position with San Francisco the next year.

“Miles is one of my favorite players that I’ve ever coached, just in terms of how on it he was,” 49ers head coach Shanahan said, per a 247 Sports piece from 2019. “Whether it was the run game or the pass game, he really enjoyed football. He was descending at that time in his career, so I wasn’t sure I was going to like him as much. But then when I got there and I saw the person, you can see why he was so successful. A guy like that, you’re always like, ‘Hey, if you’re ever interested in a coach, you’d be a hell of a one.'”

Now Austin will have his chance in New York, overseeing the position he once played.

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