according to alden, its more like 41% of his catches were behind the los (at least under fisher) so 59 were not. however, that figure is tied for second in the NFL from 2013-16 so obviously thats pretty high and limits the down field threat. moreover, Austin has made only 15 career catches on passes that have traveled at least 15 yards through the air, a total surpassed by 125 players over the past four seasons (again under fisher). His reception percentage on those deep balls is 28.8, 13.7 percentage points below the league average from 2013-16.
so to me yes austin has done "it" but he has not done "it" consistently which likely led to him being traded.
source: [
www.espn.com]
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From 2014-16, he caught 59.5% of his 227 targets, which while not great is the same as players like Pierre Garcon, Julio Jones, Jimmy Graham etc. and better than players like AJ Green, Ty Hilton, Amari Cooper, etc.
But how many of Austin's catches were basically screens? A lot more than any of these guys. His catch % should have been 65%+ based on what they did with him.
You saw the vid. They're not basically just all screens. The vid shows that clearly. And so do the numbers. 45% of TA's catches were at or behind the LOS (the screen pass territory) which means 55% weren't. He ran a lot of screens yeah but it was definitely mixed in with other plays...as, again, the vid shows.
And yes real receivers do different things than Tavon, but the point is you can't dismiss the receiving part of his game. For one thing is scares the bejeezus out of defenses because he can break one on any play. That's why they pay so much attention to him which is also why (among the other things he does and is) he's an effective decoy.
