If you said that about Benny Cunningham, a 5th round pick at the minimum can do the things Cunningham can do, I would agree, but Austin is a threat. He has the ability to go 80 yards at any time and this creates space in the offense when he is used correctly.
I do agree he is dramatically overpaid, but there are not many 5th round picks with the elusiveness of Austin.
To me, it is one of the biggest mysteries on this board that
Benny Cunningham who went 2 years with 0 touchdowns and 3 plays of 20+ yards was viewed as a bigger contributor than Austin. Plus, there is the intangible where Cunningham never had to be accounted for because he couldn't make big plays and we see video of Austin every week holding defenses at bay and giving the other players lots of space because defenses focus on Austin.
Put it this way. Austin shows up on page 1 of every teams scouting report and it is possible that when Cunningham played with the Rams, he didn't show up at all.
Now, if you want to talk about Austin being dramatically overpaid, I agree with that point, but to don't see this concept that he has played poorly. The WRs on the Rams roster are good WRs so Austin's time is split as is the same of Kupp and Watkins. All of there numbers are down because of the time sharing program.
Replacing Cunningham with Austin and playing Gurley on 3rd down is a key reason the Rams are much better on 3rd downs this year.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2017 02:53PM by Rams_81.
