Tay-Vonn

Teams seemed to be expecting that toward season end. Martz would make TA a star.

zn wrote:

Actually I have seen a lot of people wondering if Tavon was worth it. Here’s my 2 cents. I think he was.

Here’s an example of my view. It’s just an example. One reason the qb-lite Rams beat Seattle this year is because Tavon is the only Rams player in history that could get an entire special teams punt coverage unit to focus on him so heavily they didn’t even notice where the ball was really going. Name another player in Rams history they could have done that with.

When he is up to speed and knows the offense well enough to do more things, he will have even more value….IMO.

The answer for me is “Not so far.”

I think they could have done that punt return with Ellard, Irvin, Hakim, Bruce, heck…anybody. They caught Seattle napping. But…even if Austin is the only human on the planet who could have done that…so what? They will never be able to do that again. So you don’t trade up to get a guy because he is capable of running a fake punt return once. He’s got to do more than that. So far what he has done doesn’t amount to a lot.

He has had a few big plays – Yay! – and he’s been a change of pace guy. But so far I see him as less of a weapon than Amp Lee was, or Az was, neither of whom were drafted in the first round, let alone in the top ten.

I don’t write him off, though. He could come on in Year Three. But I don’t see him as a first round pick at this point, and if he were to retire from football tomorrow in order to join an ashram, I don’t think it would change the prognosis for the upcoming season.

zn wrote:

Remember, it was just an example. I said, just one example. And personally I don’t think they caught Seattle napping…I think coverage units respect him that much. Plus of course he was 3rd in punt return yards in spite of playing just 8 games.

There are other examples from the season of him being used as a decoy on offense to set up a big play by someone else.

There’s the fact that when they had Bradford, he actually was a deep threat. And, with a qb who can throw those, will be again.

There are the runs that nearly broke so many times that you have to figure one will … and in the meanwhile he was averaging 6.2 a rush.

To me, all they need is to add in some other routes as a receiver when he becomes more proficient at that.

In fact his combined yards rushing, receiving, and returning in 2014 amounted to 857 in 8 games. Across 16 of course that’s 1714.

The 6.2 per rush is nice. I felt like he was becoming more proficient at that this season. I think a lot of people want a Big Play every time TA touches the ball, but I was satisfied with his carries this last season. I didn’t realize it was as high as 6.2, but I thought those play calls were getting an undeserved bad rap. I will take 5 or 6 per carry. I also did not know he was averaging over 100 per game combined yardage. I would have guessed a figure a lot lower than that.

I’d still like to see more out of him to justify the draft position. I’d like him to develop as a receiver, mostly. I would like him to be part of a mix on offense that makes the defense pick their poison. It will take growth from Bailey, Quick, and Austin to make that happen. And a QB would be nice.

I think it’s hard to get a grip on how good he’ll be because of the injuries. If he can stay healthy for an entire season, that will be interesting. I don’t think he was worth the trade up at this point, but I can see that he has potential to do much more than he’s done so far.

Well he is a top notch return man, but that’s about it. He definitely wasn’t worth what the rams gave up for him. If they would have taken him in the 2nd round, then yeah. But he just isn’t a very good receiver. Some could argue he is a better RB than receiver. I see alot of folks say it’s Shotty that held him back, but that’s not the case imo. The Rams seem to force him the ball. If he would become Az Hakim he may be worth it. But i don’t ever see him being that good. I could be wrong and hope i am.

I think a good QB, staying healthy all year, solves nearly all of the Rams problems, including Tavon.

Winnbrad wrote:

I think a good QB, staying healthy all year, solves nearly all of the Rams problems, including Tavon.

Exactly why they need to sign Geno Smith
and draft Kevin White.

w
v

Jeff Fisher talks about how the team misused Tavon Austin in 2014, and how he plans to use the shifty receiver and possible fantasy sleeper in 2015. Fisher: “We’re going to make a concerted effort to get him the ball to him and create matchups…I think we could have done a better job.” He talks with Pete Prisco.

Fisher: “He can get deep OUTSIDE”

Yes. I bin say’in that.
He did it at wvu all the time.
He aint just a slot guy.

w
v

Specifically on the question of whether he was “worth it” as a draft pick.

Looking back, I’d say no.

Now, I am not generally worried about “draft value.” If we get a player, I normally don’t care much about which round we get him in. I don’t fret about “We coulda got him a round later …”

But in this case, I have to judge the pick based on whether it made a difference. We were a bad team looking to break out of mediocrity. We needed to pick a difference maker.

Now, I vividly remember the thinking when the pick was made. Many on this board shared the FO thinking: Tavonn will change the game by disrupting and producing inside the perimeter. He will force teams to adapt to a threat they’ll struggle to contain.

That didn’t happen. In part because of all sorts of things. But, in my view, primarily because … he just cannot disrupt the way we all imagined he would.

I have seen him get the ball in a position where, if he makes a LB miss, he can gash the defense. And he doesn’t make the LB miss. He just IS NOT all that difficult for pro LBs and DBs to contain.

This is why I have repeatedly argued that he needs to be the second threat. Playing behind a competent WR core that can stress the perimeter, he’d get enough space to make plays. But then, that’s the point. His ability to do what he was drafted to do has, I think, been proven to be DEPENDENT on better than mediocre quality at other positions. He cannot, I don’t believe, thrive beneath a poor perimeter passing game.

And that makes him a bad draft pick FOR US in that year. We needed to make a difference with a pick. That is, we needed to draft a guy who could move the needle in himself … not a guy who might one day light things up AFTER we developed a perimeter passing game.

Now, another team might well have made him a star. I would imagine that, had Tavonn been drafted by NE, he would have been a star. The framework of roster quality and unit execution was sufficient to, most likely, provide him with the conditions that would enable him to explode. There would probably have been a dozen teams that could have taken him in the same slot and cashed in on what he offers. They would have had the platform for his success.

We didn’t have that platform. We weren’t ready as a roster, as a functioning offense, to get value from Tavonn. Thus, he was a poor pick for us at the time and in that context.

But the past is the past. Hopefully, we will solidify the offense on other levels and he will begin to thrive for us. But, you know, even if that does happen … that doesn’t mean he was a good pick in 2013.