Tavon Austin expected to be ready for Week 1, but what should Rams expect?

All signs point to Tavon Austin being ready to go for the Los Angeles Rams in Week 1 against the Indianapolis Colts.

Prior to the start of last season, the Los Angeles Rams rewarded Tavon Austin with a ridiculous four-year, $42 million extension with the intention of making him one of the focal points of the offense after recording 10 total touchdowns the year before. Unfortunately, Austin failed to live up to the hype while the Rams’ offense finished at the bottom of the league by only averaging 14 points per game, and while this wasn’t entirely his fault, it does put a high amount of pressure on the wideout to produce in 2017.

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At this point, nobody really knows what to expect from Austin since he’s been unable to suit up in the preseason since he’s been dealing with a hamstring injury. But according to Rams Insider Myles Simmons, Austin is expected to be ready to go for the regular-season opener against the Indianapolis Colts in less than two weeks, as it will be interesting to see what type of impact the wideout has in the passing game.

A few months ago, Austin was still considered one of the top options at wideout, but between the rise of Cooper Kupp along with the acquisition of Sammy Watkins, the speedster all of a sudden finds himself listed as the No. 4 wideout on the depth chart. And while Sean McVay will certainly do his best to take advantage of Austin’s speed as much as possible, there really is no guarantee of what type of impact he can make.

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It was one thing for Austin to be at a disadvantage by missing the preseason, but keep in mind the wideout also had surgery on his wrist during the offseason, which means he’s missed a good amount of time away from the football field to learn McVay’s offense. For a player that was already facing a heavy amount of pressure to come through big for Los Angeles due to all of the money he’s making, Austin now has to deal with proving all of this time away from learning McVay’s offense on the field won’t be an issue once Week 1 arrives against Indianapolis.