Tavon Austin remains Rams' punt returner despite fumbling issues
Cameron DaSilva
[
theramswire.usatoday.com]
Tavon Austin has put his first-year head coach Sean McVay in a difficult position this season. Not only did he miss the majority of offseason workouts and training camp with injuries, but he’s a player who you can’t just plug into the offense and let him go to work. He’s someone a coach needs to devise a game plan for, which is hard to do when a player isn’t healthy.
Austin has yet to play a significant role on offense, having just 31 snaps under his belt. He’s had his biggest impact on special teams, but it hasn’t always been a positive one. Austin has muffed two punts, both of which were recovered by the opponent, and is averaging just 4.7 yards per return – by far the lowest number of his career.
Despite his struggles, McVay is going to stick by him and continue giving him opportunities on special teams.
“Tavon will be back there right now,” McVay said. “We just keep pushing through and working through it, have confidence in Tavon, great focus and concentration when we’re fielding it and then you’ve got other guys ready in the instance if it’s not Tavon. But no, Tavon is the punt returner. A lot of confidence in Tavon.”
McVay said he won’t let “a couple plays” control how he uses Austin, especially after he’s made some tremendous plays over the course of his career. He certainly has the ability to flip the field in favor of the Rams, but this season, he’s done just the opposite.
In his career, Austin has returned three punts for touchdowns, all coming in his first three seasons in the NFL. He averaged a very respectable 8.3 yards per return last season despite not housing one, which should give McVay confidence in him.
However, he’s always had trouble fielding them cleanly. In five seasons, Austin has fumbled 15 punts, which is obviously a huge number. With the way Los Angeles’ offense is playing right now, it can score from everywhere. The Rams just can’t give opponents extra possessions due to fumbled punts.
