[Elvis]

A couple points:

The Rams had the number one scoring team in the NFL with the number 3 scoring offense. Sean McVay didnd't do a single thing wrong.

Tavon was coming off of wrist surgery and was very limited early on last year. That may or may not change how McVay uses Tavon this year.

Tavon might not make the team.

We shall see...

[Horny Mcbae]

Right on brother

What McVay did figure out is that Gurley deserves those targets as well, as opposed to forcing them to #11

Another good point. I forgot about Todd.

A couple points:

The Rams had the number one scoring team in the NFL with the number 3 scoring offense. Sean McVay didnd't do a single thing wrong.

Tavon was coming off of wrist surgery and was very limited early on last year. That may or may not change how McVay uses Tavon this year.

Tavon might not make the team.

We shall see...

Yup. I agree with this. As previously stated, my prediction (which isn't worth much) is that he doesn't make the team. But like you said, we shall see.

[/zn/]

A couple points:

The Rams had the number one scoring team in the NFL with the number 3 scoring offense. Sean McVay didnd't do a single thing wrong.

Tavon was coming off of wrist surgery and was very limited early on last year. That may or may not change how McVay uses Tavon this year.

Tavon might not make the team.

We shall see...

Don;t be so oversensitive. Not everything is a death match about the head coach. McV was under no obligation to use Tavon in the passing game, which I was already saying last summer. (Actually last spring: here's an example from May 2017: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5623&p=78274&hilit=criticism#p78274 ). McV didn;t draft him and was not obliged to tailor his system to get receiving yards out of Tavon. And almost every time I said that I added, and that's not a criticism. '

And the injuries had very little to do with the fact that if anything Tavon was cut more out of the passing game in the 2nd half of the season, even though at that point he was healed and knew the system well enough to make plays. (If you subtract the SF game, from game 6 through 15 Tavon has 7 targets in 10 games).

I just figure Tavon was not in McV's plans, which is fine...he had other weapons.

Which is why in this thread I said, for whatever reason McV didn;t use Tavon in the passing game last year. And...he didn't. That;s a fact. He still CAN. That's a fact too.

So for me the REAL issue is whether he can and will use him that way, now that he has the opportunity. And. Of course he can, and of course he will.

...

[Elvis]

Don;t be so oversensitive.

Come again?

[/zn/]

ZN makes it sound like it was the coach's fault for not getting production out of Tavon Austin. I cannot possibly disagree with that more vehemently. Lol.

I didn't say it was anybody's "fault" and that;s not how I look at it.

I was saying last off-season that McV did not draft Tavon and was not obligated to tailor things to use Tavon's set of things he could do in the passing game. And beginning then I said that was not a criticism---it;s true, McV would have had to bend things a bit to fit Tavon in, and he clearly had other interests.

But then by some, Tavon NOT being used that way led them to forget 2014-2016 and the various ways he WAS used in the passing game.

Now that there's no Watkins and they are keeping TA, there's a good chance IMO that McV will start using him that way.

We know it can be done, it HAS been done. But like I said some people are mistaking McV just electing not to do it for some idea that TA CAN'T do it. Well yeah he can, he's done it before.

Before McV had no particular need or interest in bending things to fit Tavon's stuff into the passing game, and now he does look like he has both the need and the interest, so it probably will happen.

None of that had anything to do with "criticizing" anyone.

Come again?

Just making it clear, again, that saying McV didn't use TA in the passing game is not criticism. As I said last May, if it were me, I would use him the way they did in 2015 and build that into my attack. But there's a chance that McVay isn't interested in doing that. I can't criticize that...he didn't draft Tavon, he has no obligation to the guy. As I said, with new regimes, the pegs sometimes have to fit different types of holes. Just the way it goes sometimes.

Same thing as now. But you took that to be criticizing McV.

Sean McVay didnd't do a single thing wrong.

To which I responded

Don;t be so oversensitive. Not everything is a death match about the head coach. McV was under no obligation to use Tavon in the passing game, which I was already saying last summer. (Actually last spring: here's an example from May 2017: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5623&p=78274&hilit=criticism#p78274 ). McV didn;t draft him and was not obliged to tailor his system to get receiving yards out of Tavon. And almost every time I said that I added, and that's not a criticism.

And btw, if I ever think McV did do something wrong, I am going to feel free to say it. Regardless of where the offense ranks. Otherwise it wouldn't be a case of calling em as I see em. That just doesn;'t apply in this case since there was no criticism of McV on this issue. I said months BEFORE he didn't use him in the passing game that he might not and that it was not a criticism if he didn't.


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[RamsFanSince82]

The Rams made it too easy for him to make $7 million.

[ramsman34]

No last year was on McVay. He just didn't use him in the passing game in the basic simple ways he had already been used. In 2015 he caught 52 passes, in 2016 he caught 58...so 110 in 2 years (plus 8 TDs), and then with McVay it's just 13 catches.

For whatever reason, McVay just didn;t use him in the ways he can be used in the passing game. Yet TA has already shown us the ways in which he CAN be used in the passing game (again, 110 catches). It's just up to McVay to actually use him that way.

....

Not taking into account him missing significant installation and reps in OTAs due to the wrist injury - first year in a new offense and Tay doesn't seem to be the quickest study.

[ramsman34]

McBae and Db have valid points: to get Tay touches means to take them away from guys who have proven themselves very capable in McVay's system. Can McVay find a way to strike a balance? Who knows. It is really all on Austin to become a player that fits the system more than the other way around. Austin IS great as a decoy, blocker, and jet sweep threat. He can do damage in space. Can those things be harnessed and unleashed through the McVay playbook? That is the free/5 million dollar question. Usually, good coaches figure out how to best use good/great football players. What is Tay, a good football player, or just a great athlete?

As Elvis said, "we will see."

[/zn/]

Not taking into account him missing significant installation and reps in OTAs due to the wrist injury - first year in a new offense and Tay doesn't seem to be the quickest study.

I took that into account. First remember I am not "blaming" anyone so no one needs to be defended. I took that into account in another post, for example, where I pointed out that even further into the season, when Tavon should have been healthier and more acquainted with the system, he just wasn't being used in the passing game. In 10 games starting in week 6 he had 7 total targets. (He was injured for a couple of games in there too...)

IMO he just didn't fit anything McV wanted to do.

Now that things have shifted, McV probably will do at least some of those things with Tavon.

[/zn/]

McBae and Db have valid points: to get Tay touches means to take them away from guys who have proven themselves very capable in McVay's system. Can McVay find a way to strike a balance? Who knows. It is really all on Austin to become a player that fits the system more than the other way around. Austin IS great as a decoy, blocker, and jet sweep threat. He can do damage in space.
"

He, he being McV, is already going to do those things. The stuff you list there, which makes up half of the TA equation. (Though you didn't list being a running back, while in 2015/16 combined he averaged 7.2 a carry.)

The question now is, can McV tap into the kind of pass plays we already know Tavon can do, and add that to the mix too. And the obvious answer is yes--he can do that. It was done before, it can be done again. If anything, being on the same field with Woods and Kupp will open up more of that for Tavon.

Is it up to Tavon to catch on to things and benefit from a whole camp? I already said that in this thread--yeah, probably.

Is it up to McV to program those things in more, and get TA active in the passing games in ways we've already seen from TA before? Sure, probably.

In 2017 he didn't see any need for those things. Now, however, I doubt if he would have kept him if he didn't intend to use those things.

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