Rams Fans United - Los Angeles Rams Fan Discussion Forum

the fact that the rams, under mcvay, will presumably no longer be a conservative run first offense should alone improve rams passing numbers across the board - for the five year stretch under fish the rams ranked 28th in pass%*, 28th in pass attempts, 32nd in pass yards, 31st in pass yards per attempt, 30th in depth of completed pass, 31st in pass 1st downs, and 31st in pass tds.

is this because the rams have had nothing but lousy receivers? no, not imo - a prehistoric offensive philosophy that undervalued the passing game, coupled with bad quarterbacks and inexperienced offensive coordinators, has been mostly to blame, at least from where i've been sitting.

the jury is still out in terms of how good goff can be at the nfl level, and the group of wide receivers is certainly a question mark, but what seems very clear is that the rams recognize that they need to score offensive points in order to turn the corner, and that an improved passing game is where it starts, which is why mcvay was hired.

which brings us to tavon austin, the biggest question mark in terms of rams wide receivers going forward, i.e. what to do with the guy, how does he fit in, how will mcvay use him, especially given the amount of money invested him.

over the past five seasons tavon has been the rams most targeted receiver, but he's also been a guy who every year has ranked at the very bottom in depth of catch, and a guy who owns a minuscule 3.3 depth of catch career average - to put that lowly number into perspective, the pats' short target slot guy, edelman, had a depth of catch average of 6.1 yards last season, while the league average for all qualifying wide receivers was 8.6 yards.

mcvay and the redskins? last season their top 4 receiving targets averaged 12.8 yards, 8.6 yards, 6.9 yards and 6.8 yards in depth of catch average, a far cry from what tavon has averaged over his career - can tavon become a deeper target? can he flourish as a deeper target?

tavon austin's depth of catch rankings among qualifying wide receivers:

2016 - 135th of 138
2015 - 142nd of 142
2014 - 140th of 140
2013 - 133rd of 137

here's a look at where woods and rams receivers ranked last season among the 92 wide receivers who saw at least 50 targets:



and here's a comparison by down... one thing that jumped out to me was how woods was a first down target guy, i.e. his first down targets made up the lion's share of his total targets, whereas britt, for example, saw most of his targets on third downs:

Tavon will either become a true, consistent, deep threat , #1 wide out OR he will be cut. I don't see any other way, with what we are (over)paying him.

To me it is obvious that an elite athlete with amazing football skills was playing under a completely inept offensive structure.

McVays system is just what the Doctor ordered for Tavon. I got a good feeling this year is going to be fun fun FUN!!!

safer wrote:Tavon will either become a true, consistent, deep threat , #1 wide out OR he will be cut. I don't see any other way, with what we are (over)paying him.

you could be right, but i also think he could be a very effective slot guy who is targeted beyond 3 yards, i don't buy the notion that he's too small and gets pushed around too easily to be effective, or is a poor route runner, i've just seen too much 21 that proves otherwise, throw him the ball in stride, while sending him north instead of east/west, and he could be a dangerous weapon imo... whatever the case, continuing to use him as the rams have in the past seems like a certain dead end... btw, i wonder if he'll continue to see carries out of the backfield in mcvay's offense? that always struck me as a "what to do with tavon stab, as opposed to an offense with a clear vision.

safer wrote:Tavon will either become a true, consistent, deep threat , #1 wide out OR he will be cut. I don't see any other way, with what we are (over)paying him.

There is another way, the question is whether McVay is interested.

Btw what I say here is not criticism of either McVay (whom I like) or Tavon (whom I like). It's just that when you have a new regime, sometimes things don't work out. As they said in Raising Arizona, there's what's right and there's what's right and never the twain shall meet.

Anyway...I don't think Tavon IS a pure receiver, in fact I never did, back to and including before they drafted him---and I advocated drafting him. So before they even drafted him, my take was that he wasn't a pure receiver. He is something different---a combined yards playmaker and multiple weapon. Given that I think they used him best in 2015.

BUT McVay may very well be thinking, I want him to be more of a pure receiver or I can't used him. In which case, yeah, Tavon could be gone after 2017, because IMO he is NOT a pure receiver and will never play like one.

So either you use him the way he is used best (2015) or you move on.

Personally, 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.

Maybe I will get one of 2 possible surprises. Maybe Tavon does adapt to being more of a pure receiver (though I have my doubts about that). Or maybe McVay says okay, let's use him the way that best suits him because he's a playmaker (I have my doubts about that, too.)

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I'd like to see what Tavon can do in a legit offense. Tavon to Fisher's staff is like this new smart phone I bought. It has all these bells and whistles. Can do so many different things. But I can only figure out how to talk, text and browse the web. My kids can do a whole lot more with it than I can. Kinda like Fisher and McVay. Fisher's old school ways could never figure how to use Tavon, except for occasional jet sweeps and quick outs. I'm curious to see what a more modern McVay can do with him.

/zn/ wrote:
Anyway...I don't think Tavon IS a pure receiver, in fact I never did, back to and including before they drafted him---and I advocated drafting him. So before they even drafted him, my take was that he wasn't a pure receiver. He is something different---a combined yards playmaker and multiple weapon. Given that I think they used him best in 2015.

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I never thought he was a pure receiver. Route running is below average. Hands might be below average too. His value is his versatility. You can line him up in the backfield. You can run him on sweeps. I personally think he should have a minimum 60 carries per season. Even 80. Bubble screens with the right blocking can free him up for a big play. I believe it never happened because defenses did not respect the deep ball in a Fisher offense. Too many defenders in that ten yard zone beyond the LOS gearing up to defend shorter routes. Use him right and he can be a unique weapon.

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snackdaddy wrote:I never thought he was a pure receiver. Route running is below average. Hands might be below average too. His value is his versatility. You can line him up in the backfield. You can run him on sweeps. I personally think he should have a minimum 60 carries per season. Even 80. Bubble screens with the right blocking can free him up for a big play. I believe it never happened because defenses did not respect the deep ball in a Fisher offense. Too many defenders in that ten yard zone beyond the LOS gearing up to defend shorter routes. Use him right and he can be a unique weapon.

I agree with you with the exception of the statement I red-bolded. The deep ball has always been part of a Fisher offense. I have done the numbers on that for a few years now. The Rams were always in the top third of the league in terms of attempts of 31 yards or more (actually the exception was Goff), and (as noted except for Goff) that was regardless of the qb. And they were always pretty respectable in terms of their completion percentage on those plays too. They would often, but not always, do it through play action, but however they did it, it was a central feature of their offense to set up and pull the trigger on big passing plays.

Now having said that, Tavon can catch his fair share of deep passes---it's just that the ball has to drop in stride in front of him within his catch radius. That can be done, too, it just takes work on the timing. So you can factor some of those in if you get the timing right on them. BUT yeah we agree overall---Tavon is a different kind of animal, IMO he does not have all the tools you need to be a reliable pure receiver.

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If Tavon can't break through this season then he never will.