The Tavon role?

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As far as using the jet sweep to manipulate the defense, imo, only Cooks has the speed to do it, but I'm not sure that it's not something that a defense can't easily counter given the tape (not to be negative).

As far as guys who ran it in college, well, it was more more like a propeller sweep, or slo-mo sweep, but there was this guy:

View: https://i.imgur.com/mMJ9LqO.gifv


View: https://i.imgur.com/nVP2qWd.gifv
 
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Shane Grandle said:
Even though Tavon never found himself in a prominent statistical role in the offense, his contributions with his play fakes on jet sweeps were something that didn’t go unnoticed by me. That split second of hesitation by the back side linebacker or end allowed Gurley to burst through holes and take advantage in cut back runs. Now with Austin in Texas, does any player on our team have the ability to command the same respect and fear on the back side and how does the offense change without it.

In short, I don’t believe any of the current receivers have that ability to scare defenses. The person I believe who is the most equipped to inherit such a role is Pharoh Cooper. He has a good feel for the field and a little wiggle so shake defenders on a sweep, but if you believe he is the same athlete Tavon is then you haven’t watched a ton of football. Is he capable of running away with that seemingly minor role in our offense? Maybe.

I just want to open the discussion of how you think that role will be filled or does the offense change and eliminate that role all together.
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Concerning his fumbles/mishandling of punts, isn’t that a good thing? :sneaky:
 
Ram65 said:
Brandin Cooks

McVay could actually have a pass play to him after a fake (didn't throw to Tavon).
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They actually did throw it to him a couple of times after a take handoff in a sweep play, and it didn't work very well. However, one time Tavon got a touchdown when they ran that play.iNg memory tells me it was against Seattle in week 15, but I'm not one hundred percent sure of that. Other than that one time that play was defended well.
 
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Shane Grandle said:
In short, I don’t believe any of the current receivers have that ability to scare defenses.
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I couldn't disagree more Shane.

Honestly it's also not even about scaring defenses, either. It's about executing the scheme McVay installs. Do that, and you're going to get chunks in that role. But Tavon, for all his splash play ability, would routinely run out of bounds, have ball security issues, or go down from someone barely touching him.

Pharoh Cooper upgraded us at punt returner back when many fans on this board felt he couldn't ever measure up to Tavon's scary ability. He could upgrade us the same way on those jet sweeps by actually demonstrating an ability to get plus yards and yards after contact occasionally vice dancing around hoping for a home run.

And Cooks is so much better than Tavon it's ridiculous. It's not even a conversation. He can also hit the homerun on the jet sweeps, but teams have to respect him as a deep threat vice rolling up in a tight zone like they did with Tavon.

This team is going to be better on offense without him IMO.
 
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Think it depends on which perspective we are looking to fill the void that Tavon left.

RB
One could say that we are and will be fine there with Gurley and Kelly with their skills in the running game and their pass catching ability as runing backs. Should Kelly Fail to live up to expectations we can find a better option to back up TG30 next season

WR
Not much will be missed from him here cause towards end of his tenure as a Ram he was pretty much phased out from that in a regular role and delegated a RB and trickster role once the other new additions came in (Cooks/Woods/Kupp/Cooper, etc) and provided better height, skill and pass catching and return ability than Tavon did.

Special Teams
P.Cooper pretty much sealed the deal for Tavon with his hunger to get on the field and make plays it seemed game after game as a WR/KR/PR when called upon.

Bottom line overall
I liked Tavon and had high hopes for him when he was drafted to be a Ram but honestly at this point not really much will be missed with his departure. When he was here other teams defenses definitely had to account for him when he was on the field as he was mostly on the field to be a distraction. But one would think Snead / Mcvay and company already got the players in place and in mind to fill that role as a distraction player for trick plays that Tavon did just as good if not better than he did.

The team is probably in better position now with him gone then when he was here, cause when he was here nobody knew what to do with him and the Rams ain't got time to be putting time and money at this stage in players who don't have a set role on the team and who don't really produce.
 
The only thing we miss with Tavon is the "what if he puts it all together" thought process.
Because based on production, (or lack thereof), what are we missing?
Annual avg:
Receiving- 39 catches on 66 targets (59%) for 338 yards
Rushing- 37 rushes for 248 yards
Total TD 4
Of course, based on last year, all the receiving numbers were trending down.
Way down

As for the Jet Sweep, why does it have to be run by one player consistently? No reason why any of the WR cant have their number called to run it. Element of surprise sure aids the play.
 
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Maybe I’m in the minority, but I never found Tavon to be an effective “gadget” player. For every great or productive play he had where he shined his potential, there would be 5-8 bonehead, negative yard, questionable outcome plays from him. I get that the jet sweep is a nice play action and distractionary play, but I thought Tavon as whole, didn’t do much for our offense. Run Cooks on those plays, otherwise focus on expanding our offense in other areas ie more down the field bombs that we struggled with Watkins (more him than Goff) or more two tight end plays.

Just my 2 cents
 
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