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LMU93
I get using him in a versatile role in the backfield, slot, out wide, etc. 2015 was his best year. But on this team- in 2017- is he going to get 6-7 touches/game the way he did then? I just don't see that happening. He had 3 Sunday and that's about what I'd expect his role to be. He's a complementary player in this offense. Hopefully a decent punt returner as well.
6-7
touches? I don;t know. But McVay has this playmaker who, if anything, ought to be more productive now than in 2015 because now he is in an offense that has a few very viable receivers (Watkins, Woods, Kupp) to open up more space.
It's an interesting issue and the offensive coaches brought it up today.
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MCVAY : (On if he sees more opportunities to utilize WR Tavon Austin going forward) “Yeah, Tavon is a guy that we want to continue to get more and more involved in this offense and really, if the game was a little bit different you would have seen him in there a lot more. He’s a guy that’s a playmaker, both as a receiver and like we’ve said with the ball in his hands, so he’s a guy that you’ll continue to see get more work. A lot of it was predicated on that he’s just returning from a hamstring (injury) and we’ve got a rotation of six receivers that are active on game day and we feel really good about all those guys, the ability to rotate guys through, keep them fresh and that’s what you can expect to see.”
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LAFLEUR: (On if he envisions using WR Tavon Austin in different ways and expanding his role this week) “Yeah. Really, it’s however we feel is the best way to attack a defense. If his number gets called, then we’re going to use him because he’s an explosive guy. And, just in those plays that he was in, we had a bunch of explosives off of whether he was getting the ball or not.”
Couple of things to note that speak to issues raised in discussing Tavon. First, McVay does not describe him as a receiver. His language on that is qualified:
He’s a guy that’s a playmaker, both as a receiver and like we’ve said with the ball in his hands . If you're a playmaker BOTH as a receiver and in other ways, then...you're not just a receiver or you're not a pure receiver or something. I know he means as a returner too, but they used him to run the ball too last week so McVay, IMO, gets what Tavon is and how to use him. And that’s 2015 style, when he ran the ball and caught it and was productive enough to score 9 Tds on offense. I wondered if McVay was just not going to use Tavon that way and was instead going to force the issue and try to make him a pure receiver (which IMO he would not be good at). So it’s good to see they are following through on this “use him like in 2015" thing.
It remains to be seen however HOW MUCH they use him...but still.
Also, LaFleur points out that they know they can use Tavon as a decoy:
"And, just in those plays that he was in, we had a bunch of explosives off of whether he was getting the ball or not." Decoy. Which also fits well with how you use Tavon. If you set it up so he is a playmaker one way or another, defenses have to account for him...and if they don't account for him, that means he's not a decoy (or not an effective one). Which means in turn that of course since he WAS effective as a decoy last week, defenses actually are keeping an eye on him.
