From a football perspective, Jeff Fisher had no idea how to fully utilize him; drafting he, Stedman Bailey, and Gurley should have made for a lethal trio, but a combination of incompetent coaching, injuries, and Bailey getting shot derailed any potential.
I cosign this sir... I live here in St. Louis and was super excited that the Rams drafted him but then reality set in, Jeff Fisher, Mr. 8-8 was our coach and we had no offensive vision. For the majority of the time, we had no online and no QB. They drafted Sam Bradford and he torn his ACL multiple times and we never had an offensive system that new how to utilize him not to mention, he was drafted too high for what he actually was. He wasn't a number 1 receiver and wasn't big enough to be an every down back. Also he was almost a before his time type of player. He would thrive in the current era of football and offensive systems for sure.
And I TOTALLY forgot about when McVay become the coach, he started pushing him out after he muffed a couple of punts and started replacing him on punt returns with a kid from S. Carolina who was either a rookie or off the practice squad and it was down hill from there.. To ME, none of this was his fault, it was just unfortunate for him.
Idc what nobody say about Tavon Austin💯This man is a college legend and had a LONG NFL career no matter if he was a 1 round bust or not, he kept a job on a NFL team so at the end HE WON‼️‼️‼️‼️
Bro I went to high school in Maryland. Tavon is a LEGEND. His highlight tape from Dunbar is INSANE. 12 minutes of literally all touchdowns.he held the record for most yards and touchdowns in a season for like a decade
I’m not from there I’m from Ga. And I thought it topped Reggie bush high school tape. He never got tackled all tape!!! It’s beyond me that ppl didn’t know who he was. I was in highschool when I found out about him. This man barely ran full speed the whole tape either. He keep calling him speed demon and it was his relaxed style of elusiveness that you really had to worry about
I’ll never forget him taking back a trick play punt against Seattle back when LOB was around….he was so fun to watch in those early years with St. Louis
I watched his whole career as a WVU fan and I can tell you that the NFL had no idea how to use him. They had him running fades and streaks up the sideline and that was never his strength. They kept trying to make him a regular receiver
Foster had a 6yr NFL career, that's solid for a nfl rb and was the lead back in carolina most of them. Now he the head coach at Ucla. Nice football life
I’m from Baltimore and my high school played him when I was attending. By far the FASTEST player we have ever seen. He could’ve really been one of the best all purpose players ever. He not the biggest (about 5’9 175) but his speed, acceleration, and elusiveness was crazy. He use to love to do that high step (Deion sander esc) on the sideline and then burst past EVERYONE. Much love to Tavon!
He should've gotten more of a chance at RB. His yards per carry were insanely high throughout his college and pro careers. He averaged 6.8 YPC for his entire NFL career (199 carries for 1,361 yards). He could've been a De'Von Achane type of RB (small, super fast, high YPC).
I'm a long time Rams fan, and believe me, it's something that haunts us. Tavon Austin. Fischer knew how to draft players, but he had trouble developing them. He was of course more of a defensive minded coach. Goff, for example, really sucked his first year under Fischer too. That, and Tavon wasn't really a receiver at heart, imo.
Being a high schooler during the Tavon insanity and going to one of the schools he always went crazy on (Baltimore City College High) was wild. My brother Gizzle (LL) was the biggest fan of TA at WVU and used to watch his highlights regularly to motivate him to get back in shape for football. S/O to Mr 100 BIG ONES!!!
What the clickbait BS is this? You warned 3 different times that this story was awful, you made the title say it was a “sad downfall”, and it turns out to be the most uneventful story I’ve ever heard. No bad breaks, no trouble with the law, no family trouble…no issues at all except that he wasn’t good enough to play in the NFL. He made 60 million to play a game he wasn’t good enough at….thats the opposite of the way you told the story.
The jump from college to NFL in terms of speed is huge. As a smaller player you are still fast but you take a lot more abuse and big hits which takes a toll on the body. That combined with naturally getting older and a little slower takes away from the number one reason you were drafted for in the first place which equates into even more hits and wear and tear on a smaller body.
You should have played his HS mixtape he was definitely a TOP recruit!! Back when Maryland had the fat coach dude flew in to one of the games on a helicopter!!! Games were always sold out!! DEFINITELY A BALTIMORE LEGEND
That West Virginia Offense was Explosive back then. But @Mattbegreat what about that WV that You had Pat white at QB and Steve Slaton at RB. I used to thrash teams on NCAA lol
I hated playing people like you on that game. You thrashed us in the same way or sense that people who use the Warriors with KD, Klay, and Steph used to thrash people.
I'm pretty sure Tavon also had his closest and opposite side receiver from WVU also be drafted by STL in NFL, Steadman Bailey. He got shot in the head. I can't remember how that happened. But not the fred lane way. It was like a stalker or a drug deal gone wrong or something.
I think a team like the Patriots of that era who had a history of making great use out of shorter WRs (Troy Brown, Deion Branch, Welker, Edelman, Faulk) could have made him a bigger star. Bill and Brady loved throwing screens to those size guys.
I’d be interested in a “what happened to Ronald Curry” video. He was the best player in VA by far his entire HS career. He was supposed to go to UVA, but juked us and went to UNC. He played FB and BB and ended up getting drafted in the NFL. He just kind of disappeared from there.
Ronald Curry had a very productive career with The Raiders. He didn't disappear. Just didn't have a high profile star level career like his high school numbers might have suggested.
A good break down would have been who else was in his class during the time to see why he was rated the no.24 wr with stats like that. Played against him in college and he was pedestrian af but he lit the nation up guess he just let everyone else eat that day
He just retired from the NFL yesterday. Was a 1st round pick and had an awesome career. Your videos are normally really good but you missed on this one buddy.
you should do jaylon smith next. love the videos and thank you for always posting these videos man. just appreciate all the work you put in for all your fan. thank you man #mattthegoat
It’s pretty obvious what happened. He excelled against lesser competition in both HS and College. I’d have to go back and see how he did against upper-echelon teams during his college career (even bowl games and a few competitive non-cons don’t truly show the grind of a full season in, say, the SEC). But it got to the point where defenses and defenders were much more capable of neutralizing his natural abilities. That’s when the scheme could have saved him, but it didn’t work out like that. But KUDOS for him being a good person and not idolizing his chosen sport.
Yeah there is no letdown here. This is just a showcase of teams that didn’t utilize a tool that might have been better than the others available at the time. The NFL didn’t want to invest in dual threat positions after the fallout of the QB busts (I.e. the RG3 era)
Matt you missed with this one my guy Tavon Austin is a cfb icon he lit up Saturdays like no other players goin to a off the grid college and still showcasing talent at a high level. He still went on to have a solid nfl career all the teams he landed with he actually made a impact and a difference with everyone isn’t meant to get a ring or win a Super Bowl but that doesn’t make them any less successful .. Tavon had pure talent and he did what many players in the country couldn’t even do “make it to the league i been subscribed to you for a while but you definitely stretched it with the title cause Tavon Austin had no downfall his career was always solid but different people & different view points i guess
Tavon Austin was the same height as my fellow Domer, Allen Rossum. Who is Allen Rossum? A return specialist who ended up with over 15,000 returning yards and kickoff return touchdowns for 5 different NFL teams.
Played in the wrong era for a terribly mid coaching regime in Fisher. Andy Reid would have salivated to have him early in his career. I think he would have thrived in NE too
As a St. Louis rams fan til this day Tavon wasn’t a bust. But he had track speed, with ZERO hands, played for a TERRIBLE franchise, the most mediocre coach of all time, also the most hated owner of all time (who is was just sued by the city of St. Louis and ordered to pay M’s back for signing a 10yr lease the same year the team was moved back to LA)
As a colts fan our team is known for making average to below average players look like superstars against us. Some of the most forgettable players will have a career game playing the colts
I remember him having a lot of upside but man mismanagement and dumb decisions on Austin all culminated in his downfall. Kick off and Punt returns were fine, but he definitely should've been used exclusively as a Slot Receiver. By bad decisions I mean by the coaches/teams he was on. You'd think with Aaron Rodgers at least he would've been fine but he would've had to start in Green Bay. He was injury prone when he played with us for that short time
I have to say that he had exactly the pro-career i thought he would have. Physically you have to be defying science or be truly magical to make that body work in the NFL. I was not remotely surprised he was average
@Mattbegreat you should do a video about Rhett Bomar. He was a five-star Oklahoma quarterback in the early 2000s. Him and Adrian Peterson were both on the same recruiting class. He ended up being the starter during his red shirt freshman year. And he would've been the starting QB during the 06....07 and possibly 08? Paul Thompson ended up taking over an 06 and then 3star QB Sam Bradford was the starter 07 and 08 instead. We ended up winning the Big 12 championship like 3 years in a row. Came really close to winning the National championship in 2008 but Florida made a couple more big plays and won it. Rhett Bomar could have easily been the Star quarterback during that era. But and I have a big but..... He got in trouble and got kicked off the team. He ended up playing for Sam Houston State and i believe he hung around the NFL for a lil while as an undrafted Free agent backup QB. I think you could definitely do a really cool video about him 👊😎
Severely undersized player (5'8) who was only drafted in the top 10 b/c of his combine 40 time. I remember watching the highlight tape on him and saying to myself, "None of his catches are beyond 5 yards downfield" then he would proceed to YAC another 30 yards with juke moves on a college level player, well newsflash that doesn't translate in the NFL. Had bust written all over him.
Yeah! I say this as an OSU fan but i think he did a disservice to himself by picking Ohio State and Jim Tressels offense. His other choice was Oregon and i think in an alternate universe if he picked that school with Chip Kellys offense back then. He would have won the heisman and probably would have won a championship with Oregon in the 2010 season
That 2015 season should have been the year where the NFL was like “ok… this how he’ll be utilized” especially with Gurley. I think teams don’t get faulted enough for not properly using players and weapons and running their careers and those years wasted for the team.
