The Los Angeles Rams must be enjoying the fine weather in their new state and by the looks of the new contract, they just awarded WR Tavon Austin they are indulging in one of the many Medical Marijuana spots as well.
Austin received a hefty pay raise to the tune of a four-year $52M deal with $30M guaranteed. That’s cheap when you consider the 3 Pro Bowls he went to or the 1800+ yards, 12 TD and 136 receptions he did last season. The Rams came away with a steal if Austin’s real name was Antonio Brown or Julio Jones. The Rams are paying over $10M+ for 48 receptions and 470 yards per season. By far the best deal this offseason, if your Austin.
But if you’re the Rams you obviously overpaid for a glorified kick returner who is still not on the level of Devin Hester, hell, he’s not on the level of Reggie Bush yet, but those HBO Hard Knocks checks must be real nice if they can manage to throw away money so recklessly. But, to be fair to Austin let’s see what he has accomplished during his career and where that money now ranks him.
Austin’s biggest season was 2015 where he caught a career-high 52 passes for another career high of 473 yards and a career high of 5 TDs. Austin, with those stellar numbers, now makes more than the top receiver in the NFL, Brown who just had one of the best seasons in the history of the league. Brown caught 52 receptions before Week 8 last season, and yet he’s on the books for $8.3M. I can’t get mad at Austin, but somewhere he’s in a corner dialing his mom and saying “just imagine if I were to actually produce.”
What this deal does is show that production doesn’t matter in the league anymore, teams are giving away money based on what if’s and possibles. This is the NFL, not a spades hand and the sad part is, Austin thinks he came out on top. Sorry bro, but if you don’t perform then you will be dragged through the mud. He just became a scapegoat and hadn’t realized it yet.