Los Angeles Rams trading Tavon Austin to Dallas Cowboys long overdue

In a 2018 NFL Draft day surprise, the Los Angeles Rams finally found a trade partner for Tavon Austin by sending the wideout to the Dallas Cowboys.

For the most part, Los Angeles Rams fans seemed to have the vibe the team would most likely pul off a few surprises during the 2018 NFL Draft, but it’s safe to say that nobody expected a trade to happen involving Tavon Austin. After all of the attempts dating back to last season, the Rams finally found a partner to take the former first-round pick on board in the Dallas Cowboys, which in a way seems like the best scenario for both parties.

Despite rewarding Austin with a hefty four-year, $42 million extension that he clearly didn’t deserve before the 2016 season, Los Angeles realized early on how much of a mistake this truly was when looking at his lack of production. Even after finding the end zone 10 times during the 2015 campaign, there was always a debate over whether Austin was capable of handling the responsibilities of being the No. 1 wideout on offense for the Rams, which he’s obviously not even close.

When seeing how Los Angeles was able to convince Austin to restructure his contract back in March after all of the failed attempts to trade him, all signs pointed to the team dealing with the wideout for one more season before eventually going their separate ways. But with the Cowboys willing to bring him on board in exchange for another sixth-round pick, this worked out great for the Rams.

As much as Sean McVay and company wanted to give it another go with Austin during the 2018 season, last year was the perfect example that he simply wasn’t worth the time. When looking at how much McVay was able to elevate just about every player’s game to a whole new level on offense, it was beyond frustrating to see Austin continue to struggle the way he did after catching just 13 passes for 47 yards all season.

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Whether the Cowboys will finally figure out a way to get the best out of Austin on offense since they need some help at wideout after moving on from Dez Bryant, only time will tell. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter to the Rams whether Austin is successful or not in Dallas since all they care about at this point is how he’s finally off their hands after all of the frustrations from the previous two seasons.