Cowboys planning big role for Tavon Austin

The Dallas Cowboys are planning to get the ball to Tavon Austin and utilize his skills much more than his previous team did.

After spending the first five seasons of his NFL career with the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams, Austin was traded to the Cowboys last month for a sixth-round draft pick.

Austin has the ability to function in several roles. He’s primarily a wide receiver, but can also return punts and kicksoffs as well as carry the ball out of the backfield. It sounds like Dallas is fully committed to giving Austin more than enough opportunities to be an impact player for the Cowboys. Team exec Stephen Jones says they want him to touch the ball a dozen times per game, at a minimum, as pointed out by Rotoworld’s Josh Norris.

Listening to the #Cowboys Day 3 press conference. They call Tavon Austin a "web back" and want to get him the ball "a dozen to two dozen" times per game, plus return game on top of that.

12 to 24 times. Per. Game.

I had to listen 3 times to make sure I heard that correctly.

— Josh Norris (@JoshNorris) May 10, 2018

Receipts pic.twitter.com/HaRGcDXApA

— Josh Norris (@JoshNorris) May 10, 2018

With Dez Bryant having been released last month, there will be plenty of targets to go around in the Cowboys’ offense next season. In his best season in 2015, Austin had 52 receptions for 473 yards and five touchdowns. He also had 52 rushes for 434 yards and four more touchdowns. Austin returned 34 punts as well. Austin was nonexistent at times in the Rams’ offense last season and struggled on special teams. It doesn’t sound like that will be the case with the Cowboys.