He had 10 TD's, therefore he must be worth that kind of money? It's not like the volume is so great you can't look at each one of these players individually to determine what that number actually means to the player and their teams both in 2015 and likely down the road.
The most important points I see missing from this discussion are these:
- How did Austin's split production as a receiver and rusher from the receiver position improve the offense? He scored 9 TD's from scrimmage that way, but his total yards from scrimmage still didn't even reach 1,000 yards.....in his very best season and 3rd since being drafted 8th overall.
The answer is, it didn't help improve the offense. In fact, despite Gurley and despite Austin's alleged impactful contribution, the offense in 2015 got worse, not better, from the previous year when Austin Davis and Shaun Hill split time at QB. It added to the frequency of gimmick plays, but that's not a productive approach overall in the NFL. It helped Austin get his TD's, but did not help the offense to gain more yards and score more TD's overall.
-At 5'9", 174 lbs, just how sustainable of a strategy do you think it's going to be to hand the ball to Austin as a runner from scrimmage as much or more than he'll catch it as a receiver? How long do you think he's going to last before he's on IR instead of on the field?
I don't know what the answer is to that, but I suspect it's that it won't be very sustainable. Not only because he's unlikely to hold up physically, but also because even if he does, defenses will start taking it away. Then what? Now you're back to depending on him as a WR again.
