2013 NFL Draft Targets: Tavon Austin compared to Percy Harvin
Tavon Austin is one of the most dynamic weapons in college football, and the West Virginia Mountaineers star wide receiver has been compared to both Minnesota Vikings superstar Percy Harvin and Kansas City Chiefs weapon Dexter McCluster by NFL scouts in a piece written by Albert Breer on NFL.com.
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One scout called Austin a “smaller Percy Harvin” and another scout said this , “He’s a niche-type player — you look at players like him, it’s probably a little bit like a (Dexter) McCluster, that ‘tweener type. Is he a receiver? Is he a tailback? How do you use him? Here’s how: You find a way. He’s a package guy, though, and you take him knowing you have to design things for him. Most college offenses have that guy; doesn’t fit a position, but he’s such a special athlete.”
The real question is, could he be a slot receiver for the Patriots? Wes Welker and Julian Edelman are both set to become free agents at the end of the year, and chances are that the Pats cannot keep both of them. We all sorely hope that they can keep both stars, but the big deals given to Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski paint a less rosy picture.
NE Pats Draft has the best Patriots draft-related content around, and editor James Christensen wrote an amazing piece on him yesterday that you can read here. He called Austin a “natural fit” for the Patriots, and Dan Hope had the Pats picking Austin in his NFL Mock Draft today.
Hope wrote, “Austin is small, but he has a fantastic combination of speed, quickness, route-running ability and running ability that give him the potential to be a very dynamic player in the form of Randall Cobb or Darren Sproles at the next level.”
Please read Christensen’s piece above, because you will get a great idea of what Austin can bring to pro team. If you are a skeptic (like I was, but I also hate WVU as a Pitt fan), then you might find yourself become a believer after reading the piece.
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