He had a lot of family and friends in the building, including some he didn’t even expect to see – long-time friends, his mon and stepdad, grandparents and more –and it meant the world to him that they were there for his biggest career moment: his first NFL touchdown.
Jets running back Austin Walter is from Crosby, Texas, which is less than an hour northeast of Houston, and he is a graduate of Houston’s Rice University, so it was a wonderful homecoming for him on Sunday when Gang Green elevated him from the practice squad for their game against the Texans.
“Just being here my whole life, it meant a lot to me for this to be the place to get my first career touchdown,” Walter said after the Jets’ win. “I know my dad is in Heaven smiling down on me…a lot of emotions, bittersweet emotions. It was a pretty cool experience.”
Walter’s father Tony passed away in his sleep in the summer of 2017, while both he and brother Aston were at Rice preparing to go to Australia to play their season opener against Stanford. He was the only one Austin wishes could have been there, but as he smiled postgame, he knows dad had ‘the best seat in the house.’
“I know that he had the best seat in the house, and if he was right here, he’d be smiling ear-to-ear, so proud and bragging to all of his friends,” Walter said. “He’s the one that allowed me to get here; I know he’s in Heaven looking down thinking my hard work paid off.”
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Aston is a graduate assistant at Vanderbilt now, while Austin grinded through training camps and practice squad time with the Niners, Giants, and Niners again – as well as a stint in the XFL – before joining the Jets this summer. He has been on the practice squad since early-October and knew on Saturday that he would be elevated for this game, but he wasn’t sure how much he’d be utilized, even with Michael Carter out.
But Walter was ready for whatever came his way.
“The way I train is that you always have to be ready for the moment, because you never know, Being a guy on the practice squad, you know how this league works, so when you get your opportunity, you have to do everything you can to make it last,” he said. “When coach kept calling my number, I thought that if I want to stay up here, I have to make the most of it, and I hope I did that.”
"He's a spark plug; he's got a lot of initial quickness and burst, and is similar to Michael in his running style," head coach Robert Saleh said of Walter. "He's a good back, and he's proven that he can create explosive plays. Just having that burst and juice he brings, I thought it would be a good addition."
The back had nine carries for 38 yards in the Jets, second behind Tevin Coleman’s 16 totes and third in yards behind Coleman and Ty Johnson, but he had perhaps the biggest run of the game: a two-yard scamper late in the second quarter that, combined with a two-point conversion, made it 14-11 Texans at the half.
“It was an inside zone, and I could see the defense was slanted in, so let’s just hit it off the guard’s block and it would be right there,” he said. “It was going to be my first touchdown and I wasn’t going to be denied.”
"I was so happy for him; you could see the smile on his face, and it said everything," wide receiver Elijah Moore added. "It's a blessing for anybody to have big moments like that."
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Perhaps some divine intervention?
“My mom said yesterday she could feel that I was going to score today,” he smiled. “Mother’s intuition…mama always knows best.”
Walter had a 12-yard run just before the two-minute warning, just the second carry of his career, and then another two-yarder before punching in the score. He got six more in the second half, and credited his time within the Mike LaFleur-helmed system in San Francisco for helping him be able to contribute right away.
“Being in this kind of system for three years, spending time in San Francisco, I got an idea on how this offense is supposed to work: it’s based on the run game, and that opens up for everything else,” Walter said. “It allows for clock management, the defense to play with the lead…it’s the foundation of the offense.”
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And even if this is as good as it gets, not a bad career highlight for a kid who admitted he didn’t even watch the NFL as a young kid, and had to get mom’s permission before even stepping onto a field to play the game.
“I have to shout out my mom, Dian; she is the person who put me in football when I was three years old. I had to go to her first and she went to my dad, so without her, I wouldn’t be here,” he said.
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