Long post incoming! Fair warning.
Tavon Austin might not be anything more than a mediocre pure wide-out for a variety of reasons - small catch radius, average route running, average hands. But Austin only being a mediocre conventional WR is fine with me because he is an extremely valuable *football player*.
For starters, he is one of the best punt returners in the game. If not the best. As mentioned in this thread already, perhaps nobody in the NFL is kicked away from as much as Tavon Austin. That's pretty telling. Seattle tried kicking to Austin in week 1 this past season. He promptly returned it for a highlight reel TD. That was the end of teams kicking to Austin in 2015-16. The rare times he does get the ball on punt returns, the defensive coverage is often strong due to the hang time punters put on it vs. Austin. But Tavon still routinely makes something out of nothing. Or, when he gets a strong block or two, takes it to the house or damn near it.
On offense, he's a threat to score every time he touches the ball. He had 10 touchdowns last year on how many snaps? Someone above me already pointed the stat out out. His TD numberss were comparable to Gurley's despite a fraction of the touches. On a team that is desperate for offense, you think fans would appreciate a player whose TD-to-snap ratio is consistently among the highest in the NFL.
Even though Austin is small in stature, he's also a great blocker, which is not a quality to be overlooked in an offensive skill player. Especially in a power offence like ours (there is a reason Brian Quick might yet make this team again!). Austin's speed allows him to get to his man in the blink of an eye. And he is not at all shy about using every ounce of his undersized body. Just ask Pierre Desir, Tavon absolutely trucked him last year to spring Gurley vs Cleveland.
His mere presence keeps defences honest. Plus, more unique to the Rams offense, he is the perfect compliment to Gurley. The misdirection the Rams run with Austin and Gurley is a mutually beneficial set up, but neither player will see that value they contribute reflected in their individual stats. At least not directly...
Despite his average receiving ability - again, small catch radius etc - he can still be a deadly weapon as a WR if used correctly and a QB is accurate enough to hit him in stride (see: his game vs. Indy) or fit the ball in tight windows (see: Foles to Austin against Arizona). Sadly, arguably no team has had worse QBs than the Rams as of late. Or worse offensive coordinators. Goff and his accuracy has the potential to see Austin's game catapult to truly epic levels. Fingers crossed. If in addition to Goff panning out we finally have an OC that can also use Austin effectively?! Look out!
Austin is also a huge threat as a RB. I don't know why we ran him into the teeth of the defense so many times last year, but I digress...
And is there any player better in open space? There was a stat published about teams breaking tackles / making players miss recently where the Rams were near the very top of the league. Austin, unsurprisingly, was leading that charge (along with Benny Cunningham).
I think there are two main issues that cause people to conclude Austin is overrated. For one, they look at his (receiving) stats and say "not good enough!", not realising that Austin is one of those rare players whose value will never fully be captured by numbers alone. Secondly, people will see Tavon listed as a WR, see that he isn't overly impressive as a conventional WR, and then get frustrated. People have to stop thinking of Austin in terms of pure wide-out terms. He's listed as a WR only because you have to list him as *something*.... in reality he is a gadget player that defies being boxed in by any one positional label. Some people say that like it's a bad thing. I think it's a huge compliment. Austin is a true swiss army knife - he can do it all. And he's been doing it with crappy QBs and OCs. He might be the biggest scoring threat in the league, IMO. For that reason alone, if he's "overrated", then I'll take his overrated TD scoring ass on my team any day.
