Are the Cowboys being realistic with Tavon Austin’s role in Dallas?

The Dallas Cowboys have recently stated they’d like Tavon Austin to get 12-24 touches per game. Are they setting realistic expectations?

On the last day of the NFL Draft, the Dallas Cowboys made some noise when they shipped a sixth round pick to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for WR/RB/KR, Tavon Austin. Austin, considered a massive disappointment since being drafted eight overall, fell out of favor in LA and was sent packing for pennies on the dollar.

The Dallas Cowboys made the low-risk/low-cost move to help address their needs in the return game as well as to add speed to a speed-deficient offense. But what once seemed like just a shot-in-the-dark, quickly turned into a move of great significance…

It didn’t take long before Dallas Cowboys VP Stephen Jones started predicting the expected quality of offensive touches – even coming up with a shiny new position title of “web back”.

We’ll discuss the expected role of “web back” in coming days (Hint: it’s not just Lance Dunbar 2.0). But for now let’s address the general expectations. 12-24 touches is freakin’ significant. That’s not role-player touches – that’s cornerstone player touches.

What do we make of this?

Well, Stephen Jones is wrong. He has to be. Whether he lied, misled, or misspoke I can’t say for sure, but there is no earthly way Tavon Austin resides in the 12-24 touches per game range in 2018.

Piecing together Tavon’s most productive seasons –

2013 kick returns: 18, 2016 punt returns: 44, 2016 receptions: 58, 2017 rushes: 59

If you piece together Tavon Austin’s most productive years in the NFL, add them up, and divide by sixteen, you’ll get only 11.18 touches per game.

And that’s cherry-picking data over five seasons to Doctor Frankenstein him into his absolute best.

Scott Linehan has long coveted Tavon Austin and he likely oversold his potential to the Dallas Cowboys.

Stephen Jones probably got caught up in the excitement and then out came the craziness. That’s my take on this whole thing, anyway.

The Dallas Cowboys cannot play anything resembling the offensive system they had in 2016 and 2017, and expect Tavon Austin to get between 12-24 touches per game. Not with a healthy Ezekiel Elliott, at least.

They would have to fundamentally change their offense in order to get it done. And while I believe they will be moving to an RPO system, the 12-24 touches is still unrealistic expectations.

Tavon Austin is not going to get anywhere around 16 touches per game. It’s going to be difficult for him to get 10 touches per game. It’s likely the Dallas Cowboys have a creative role for the dynamic speedster but it’s not going to come at the cost of Zeke.

Next: Is Dak Prescott Yanny or Laurel?

Pump the breaks on expectations for Tavon Austin. It’s about quality, not quantity anyway. In the next couple days we’ll look at the types of balls Tavon Austin should be getting in 2018. And it’s their quality rather than quantity that are the most exciting.