Packers Add Return Man/Gadget Player Tavon Austin & DL Help

The Green Bay Packers were busy on Monday making roster moves as they officially claimed Anthony Rush off waivers and signed Tavon Austin.

After blowing out the Chicago Bears on Sunday night and taking a three-game lead in the NFC North, the Green Bay Packers were busy on Monday as they made two new additions to their roster. Late last week, there were rumors that Green Bay was holding a workout for wide receiver and return man Tavon Austin and that they had claimed defensive tackle, Anthony Rush. Well, yesterday, those two moves became official.

Tavon Austin adds stability to Green Bay Packers’ special teams and insurance for Tyler Ervin

Over the last month, the Green Bay Packers’ special teams unit has been a liability, and that includes the kick and punt returners. We don’t need to dive into the misplayed balls, fumbles, and other blunders that have occurred, but Tavon Austin is someone who can provide stability at the returner position.

A former first-round pick in the 2013 draft, Austin has 185 career punt returns, three of which he scored on, and has averaged 7.9 yards per punt return during that span. For reference, that would rank as the 10th best average in the league this season. As far as kick returns go, Austin isn’t nearly as experienced, with only 25 career return attempts, none of which have occurred during the 2018 and 2019 seasons, while 18 took place back in 2013.

On offense, we’ve seen how important pre-snap motion is to Matt LaFleur’s system as it helps create that “illusion of complexity” that he desires by keeping the defense off-balance and guessing. Like Tyler Ervin, Austin is another player who can be a weapon when used in that capacity. With 4.34 speed, Austin has 196 career rushing attempts while averaging nearly seven yards per carry and 10 touchdowns.

Now, it’s worth pointing out that Austin’s production as a receiver is a bit underwhelming with a career average of only 9.3 yards per catch and a catch rate of less than 59 percent, but expectations shouldn’t be that he is going to be a game-changer for this Green Bay Packers’ offense. However, what he can provide is an experienced return man and someone who can fill in for, or hopefully alongside of Tyler Ervin as a speedy gadget player in LaFleur’s system, which Austin is familiar with after spending time with the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers.

Green Bay Packers add a run-stuffer to the defensive line

Even before Montravius Adams was placed on IR, the Green Bay Packers could have used more depth at the interior defensive line position given the overall underwhelming play from the group this season–excluding Kenny Clark, of course.

Enter Anthony Rush, who went undrafted out of the 2019 class from the University of Alabama Birmingham. With not even two full seasons under his belt, Rush has bounced around and has limited NFL experience, appearing in 13 games while totaling only 237 career snaps on defense. In that playing time, he has recorded one sack, four pressures, and nine tackles.

Once again, don’t expect any major contributions here, but if Rush is going to provide some help, it’ll be in the run game where Green Bay desperately needs it. Listed at 6’5″ – 350 pounds, Rush takes up a lot of space in the middle as a run-stuffer. Keep in mind this is a small sample size, but by Pro Football Focus’ ($) run-stop rate measurement, which calculates the rate at which a player records a run-stop, Rush ranked 46th out of 184 eligible defensive tackles in 2019.

Including his two stints with Philadelphia, this will be Rush’s sixth NFL team in less than two seasons; he’s certainly had troubling sticking. But with his size, skill-set, and Green Bay’s need for help along the interior defensive line, initially, this seems like a solid depth addition.