Tavon Austin

[jap]

Tavon dropped more balls than an honest duffer on a water filled golf course last year. Cook and Givens are nearly as bad. All three have athletic talent but I'd take Bruce, Holt, and Conwell over them based on route running and hands alone. When Tavon cleans up his drops, I will concur that his other qualities put him above Az. Az fumbled the punts so often I prayed for Proehl, Holt, or Faulk to fair catch something rather than put Az back there. But for whatever reason. Az caught passes that in his rookie year, Austin laid on the turf.

Tavon did clean up his drops as the season went on. The Rams planned for Tavon to do quite a bit from early on in his rookie season, and they burdened him with a ton of details to remember and execute efficiently. The drops seemed to be due more to his own uncertainty with carrying out unfamiliar play schemes and peeking ahead to see where the defenders were. As he grew more comfortable with the offense, the drops 'magically' disappeared.

If you think for one instance that Az is superior to Tavon, you don't seem to know very much Rams football. Az had 20 receptions for 247 yards and one TD over nine games his rookie season. By comparison, Tavon had 40 catches for 418 yards and 4 TD's over 13 games. Az' second season saw him blossom to his best season ever: 39 grabs for 677 yards and 8 TD's over 15 games. Let's see how Tavon will do this coming season.

 

[ZigZagRam]

Tavon was starting to break out before the injury. If you project his stats for a rookie WR they're very good. Unfortunately with the injury we didn't get to see a big finish.

A player like Austin fits in every offense. It's only a matter of time before he's burning teams weekly because of our play action.

I will say this though, if they continue to limit his use as if he's Danny Amendola, it will have been a wasted pick. Tavon needs to be on the field for every down and he needs to be utilized as an outside receiver and not pigeon-holed as a slot guy only. Hopefully they'll realize that this year.

 

[Ram Quixote]

Let's put it this way. Do you want the Rams to defend against him, or play with him?

 

[Memphis Ram]

I can't wait for that first Whiner or Seapuke victory where Tavon is the difference maker. Than we can talk about whether or not we like him better than a guard.

I'd guess that most, including myself, would go Patterson & Warford + plus the money spend on Saffold vs. Austin. Not just Austin vs. a guard.

 

[mr.stlouis]

Yea I feel he is going to have a monster year. I think Austin might be the #2. Hopefully Britt or Quick can take some pressure off of him as the #1.

Its hard to imagine a slot guy being a or two WR. Then again, Ammendola was our #1 guy for a couple years. When he played, he was a dang good play. That SF game was something special.

I thought Tavon would be targeted like Danny out of the gate like Danny was, I still wonder what happen. I watched Danny play live, he had a lot of heart but looked pretty slow. It's amazing he played as well as he did.

 

[lockdnram21]

Its hard to imagine a slot guy being a or two WR. Then again, Ammendola was our #1 guy for a couple years. When he played, he was a dang good play. That SF game was something special.

I thought Tavon would be targeted like Danny out of the gate like Danny was, I still wonder what happen. I watched Danny play live, he had a lot of heart but looked pretty slow. It's amazing he played as well as he did.

i think he can be more like D Jax then Amendola

 

[fastcat]

Let's put it this way. Do you want the Rams to defend against him, or play with him?

If jenkins coverages him it would.look.like that 2011 game when the ravens came to town and torry smith hit.us up.for 3tds in the first 5min of the game, lol.

 

[mr.stlouis]

i think he can be more like D Jax then Amendola

Thing is Ammendola was so quick in his cuts and no one shut him down in straight man. Tavon is quicker and faster.

We just need football season to get here. Lol

 

[jrry32]

Injuries: Austin out 3 1/4 games, Patterson out 0 games. Enough said.

Dexter McCluster - 5'9" 170
Has played in 90.6% of games possible over his career
Anquan Boldin - 6'1" 225
Has played in 88.6% of games possible over his career

Enough said. Right?

No it wasn't a big hit (that's my point), but it wasn't even close to being the same situation as Jake Long. Dansby had very little of his weight on Austin. It was a simple tackle, with minimal if any roll. A sturdily built player would have gotten up with no problems. Not Austin--he's out for the remainder of the season.

What a bunch of bullshit. Dansby dragged Austin down from behind with his weight coming down on Austin's ankle while Austin was running.

It was no "simple tackle". It was the type of play that ANY player can be injured on. As I just showed with three examples of other Rams suffering serious injuries on the same types of plays.

Jake Long is a gigantic man with much more than a sturdy build and he tore his ACL on the same type of play. When you get rolled up on from behind, you never know what will happen.

The play is right here and it's pretty blatantly obvious that Austin's ankle gets rolled up and turned the wrong direction under Dansby's body as he comes down on him:

Just one more of your one-sided opinions. The facts:

NFL records[edit]

• Longest kickoff return touchdown: 109 yards (October 27, 2013)
• The first NFL player to have a 100-yard kickoff return touchdown, a 75-yard touchdown catch, and a 50-yard rushing touchdown in the same season. (2013)

Minnesota Vikings franchise records[edit]

• Most kickoff return yards in a season: 1,393 (2013)
• Highest kick return average in a season: 32.4 (2013)
• Most kickoff return touchdowns in a season: 2 (2013) (tied with Percy Harvin)[17]
• Longest rushing play by a receiver: 50 yards (December 29, 2013)
• Longest play by a Viking: 109 yards (October 27, 2013)

2013 AP All-Pro.

You can keep your "facts". You'll quickly learn that I don't care about what people think the stats say. I base my opinions on what I see on the field. Throwing a bunch of stats at me means nothing to me. Any person is capable of reading a box-score.

Again, you're wrong. Watch Patterson's tape in college--he's a very physical player, often running over SEC defenders. I'll tell you what: You post the most physical play Tavon Austin has ever made and I'll post the same for Patterson. Let's decide. Austin rarely breaks an arm tackle. Patterson is faster than Sammy Watkins. So Watkins is not a true speedster? Patterson had almost double the APY and more TDs than Austin had. No, Patterson's not a jump ball WR, but infinitely more so than Austin who is an extremely limited target. And, unlike Austin, he has the physical tools to be one.

I don't care about physicality after the catch. Not what I'm referring to. You don't get open by running people over after the catch. Patterson has to be able to get separation. He's not physical before the catch, he's not a polished route runner, and not a true "speedster".

And no, Patterson is not faster than Watkins on the field. Watkins has an extra gear on vertical routes than Patterson doesn't have.

Finally, I don't care what your physical tools are. You either are or aren't a WR that wins jump balls consistently. That isn't something that tends to change.

 

[jrry32]

Watch Patterson run with the ball, his cutting is one of his strengths. The dude can turn on a dime. I know you were speaking of Austin's cutting ability without the ball, but if Patterson can do that with the ball then I see no reason why he can't do it without. They are both similar receivers at completely different statures. Neither of them are going to be superb route runners anyway. They are more YAC receivers.

I've seen Patterson play many many times. The way Patterson cuts is different than the way Austin cuts and isn't conducive to route running. Austin has really flexible hips and naturally drops his body as he cuts. It allows him to not gear down while cutting on a dime. Patterson is different. He's an upright runner that is ridiculously fluid. Patterson more just flows into his cuts. He doesn't drop his body like Austin does. He doesn't plant and explode in the same way Austin does.

It's why Austin's cutting ability is more easily translatable to route running.

 

[Zaphod]

I've honestly thought the same thing. He and Cook both seem to be more a fit to the scheme they started out with last year. He just wasn't my guy, spilled milk though I don't care.

That doesn't mean that Tavon can't be productive in the power run game. They just need to use him as an outside threat more.

Austin is going to be really fun to watch this year.

 

[Rams and Gators]

Gearld McCoy got snubbed from the Pro Bowl last year, that says a lot. There's few better than him at DT, maybe nobody. Patterson did OK, though.

I didn't see Tavon get a whole lot "open field" last year. I don't beleive our offense will crumble like it did at the beginning of last year and Tavon will outshine Patttsrson by year's end.

We need to make a betting line for this.

On what? Who's more productive?

Tavon dropped more balls than an honest duffer on a water filled golf course last year. Cook and Givens are nearly as bad. All three have athletic talent but I'd take Bruce, Holt, and Conwell over them based on route running and hands alone. When Tavon cleans up his drops, I will concur that his other qualities put him above Az. Az fumbled the punts so often I prayed for Proehl, Holt, or Faulk to fair catch something rather than put Az back there. But for whatever reason. Az caught passes that in his rookie year, Austin laid on the turf.

Watching him again most of his drops came on plays where he wanted to take off prior to the ball being in his hands, where that wasn't possible he had some really nice catches and few (if any) drops, thankfully that's mental rather than a physical fault, it should be easy to correct, especially if we use him outside and stop with the screen plays that we don't have the other players to execute.

Simple Tackle? Minimal if any roll?

Here's the play:

That amount of torque on the ankle would have injured anyone's ankle. Has nothing to do with his size. You can see the ankle/lower leg externally rotated at least 45 degrees from normal at 1:10 in the video

You should post in discussions more .

 

[shaunpinney]

yeh, lets see if we can trade him - I mean on the play shown here we only see him beat about 9 defenders and gain 56 yards - we don't need him on our offense...

 

[Rams and Gators]

yeh, lets see if we can trade him - I mean on the play shown here we only see him beat about 9 defenders and gain 56 yards - we don't need him on our offense...

Trying to trade him now would be silly, come on man.

 

[shaunpinney]

Trying to trade him now would be silly, come on man.

maybe I should have put an Irony Alert at the top of my post

 

[mr.stlouis]

On what? Who's more productive?



Watching him again most of his drops came on plays where he wanted to take off prior to the ball being in his hands, where that wasn't possible he had some really nice catches and few (if any) drops, thankfully that's mental rather than a physical fault, it should be easy to correct, especially if we use him outside and stop with the screen plays that we don't have the other players to execute.



You should post in discussions more .

I don't care, anymore, but yeah that's what I meant.

 

[Thordaddy]

I am satisfied with TA ,but if someone would offer me the #8 pick for him this or next year (no cap ramifications) IOW total fantasy here,I'd take it,I think he was over drafted ,but can become all any of us hope I just think if we'd gotten that for him and had a first round of Watkins ,Matthews and Donald this year we'd probably be in better shape.
Don't get me wrong if GR lives up to expectations he's gonna be great, but I always believed Matthews was born and raised to be an NFL player ,the money won't change him but I'm uncertain that's true of GR.
Matthews has a high standard to live up to has embraced the standard and IMO will be durable as hell.

 

[TheDYVKX]

The play is right here and it's pretty blatantly obvious that Austin's ankle gets rolled up and turned the wrong direction under Dansby's body as he comes down on him:

Did Daryl Washington kick Tavon when he was on the ground in pain? Can't tell who it was, but Washington got the personal foul. That's despicable.

 

[A55VA6]

Did Daryl Washington kick Tavon when he was on the ground in pain? Can't tell who it was, but Washington got the personal foul. That's despicable.

Looks like Jake Long and some Cardinal player were pushing and shoving and Long bumps into him.

 

[TheDYVKX]

Looks like Jake Long and some Cardinal player were pushing and shoving and Long bumps into him.

Maybe. Hard to tell. I hope that's what happened.