Rams plans of trading or releasing Tavon Austin isn’t surprising

A recent report claims the Los Angeles Rams will trade or release Tavon Austin before the start of the league year.

Even though it’s only the beginning of March, the Los Angeles Rams have already kept themselves busy during the offseason between agreeing to trade for Marcus Peters along with trying to decide the future of other key players such as Sammy Watkins or Lamarcus Joyner. And to keep the trend going, it looks like the Rams have already made another key decision in regards to Tavon Austin.

For reasons that have been difficult to explain, Los Angeles made a terrible decision heading into the 2016 season by rewarding Austin with a $42 million extension he clearly didn’t deserve, even if he did find the end zone 10 times the year before. Even after setting a career high of 509 receiving yards in 2016, paying Austin this large amount of money was simply ridiculous.

To top the frustration off, the Rams were in a tough position last year when it came to the thought of cutting Austin due to all of the guaranteed money as part of his contract. This time around, however, Los Angeles finds themselves in a much different situation, and according to a recent report, it looks like the team is finally making the wise decision to move on from Austin through either a trade or release.

The good news for the Rams is there is only $5 million in dead money tied to Austin’s contract if they were to release the former first-round pick, which sadly seems like the better option since a team willing to trade for him with that kind of contract seems highly unlikely at this point. But no matter what happens, at least Los Angeles has finally realized that Austin was a poor investment from the start, and moving on will at least open up a roster spot for someone else who can make more of an impact on offense.

Next: 3 reasons Rams will win Super Bowl before leaving Coliseum

As terrible as it sounds to say out loud, if an offensive genius like Sean McVay can’t figure out a way to use a player with Austin’s speed to his advantage, it’s tough to have hope over his NFL future. Keep in mind that McVay did everything in his power to figure out some sort of way to use Austin whether it was offense or special teams, and after seeing him play just two snaps during the team’s playoff loss to the Atlanta Falcons, the decision to move on isn’t all that surprising for the Rams.