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Classicalwit
Austin drops quite a few passes. Also, the writer was right about him letting the ball into his body when he catches it. He doesn't take the ball out of the air aggressively. Maybe his arms are too short for that; he catches like a T-Rex would if a T-Rex could.
I wish I could do the numbers but you can't anymore---ESPN splits no longer provides attempts/targets, just receptions. If you do it that way you can never determine what percentage the receiver catches within a given range (ie. passes thrown 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, and 31+).
I do remember that yes they have thrown to Austin long---enough to form the view that they didn't do it more because he was not that good at catching them. The team, knowing that, hasn't made him a frequent target on long passes. So yes they threw it his way long. IN FACT, one thing forgetten about the Fisher offense is it DID throw long at fairly high percentage. Every qb they had averaged around 5% attempts in the 31 yard range, which in terms of league standards is in the top third and often fairly high in the top third. So here's a team that DID throw long--it was part of their identity---and yet they didn't target Austin that much? Either that is stunning neglect at the level of being too dumb to be allowed to drive, OR they judged that he could not do it consistently enough to count on it. From what I have seen of him playing, it's the latter.
From what I have seen. a qb has to be directly in sync with him--timing, anticipation, and so on--for it to work. That's what it looks like.
BUT and this is IMO important in assessing Tavon. IMO HE IS NOT A RECEIVER SO IT'S NOT ACCURATE TO JUDGE HIM AS ONE. He's something else.
He catches passes, in a lot of different kinds of plays, and he can run the ball or do jet sweeps etc and is always a danger to score. So as I keep saying, he's not a pure receiver, and it's just inaccurate to try and judge him as one---he is a combined yards multiple weapon you can use a lot of different ways. They did that in 2015 and the result was 900 yards from scrimmage and 9 TDs. We can't dismiss that.
So it's just inaccurate IMO to say well he's not DeSean Jackson. Well yes strictly speaking that's true--he's not going to have Jackson's full set of receiver chops. But then DJ is never going to get you 8.3 yards a carry running the ball and 4 rushing TDs.
To me you have to acknowledge what TA is and use him to best advantage.
Also to me the question is whether McVay is interested in doing that. McVay seems to be approaching it this way---either he's a pure receiver or I can't use him.