Buffalo Bills reportedly sign wide receiver Tavon Austin
The Buffalo Bills have appeared to add another player to compete for the starting kickoff and punt return job by signing wide receiver Tavon Austin, according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.
Tavon Austin was the eighth overall pick by the Rams in 2013 and after five seasons with the Rams would play for the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, and recently the Jacksonville Jaguars.
In 113 career games, Austin has 244 receptions, 2,239 receiving yards, and 16 receiving touchdowns.
Buffalo Bills likely added Tavon Austin for his experience on special teams
The Bills have a big question at this point in the offseason about who will be the return specialist on kickoffs and punt returns. The addition of Tavon Austin gives the team one more player to add to the competition.
Austin is an experienced punt returner with 190 career punt returns and an average of 7.8 yards per punt return. He also has three career punt returns for touchdowns, however, all three came in the first three years in the NFL.
He hasn’t been asked to return punts as much recently and over the past two years, Austin has only a total of five punt returns.
Prior to this signing, the Bills didn’t have a clear favorite for this job. They were likely looking at a player who returned punts last year hopefully improving and taking command of the position, with Isaiah McKenzie or Marquez Stevenson the favorites.
However, the Bills did draft Khalil Shakir in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL Draft who did have some experience returning punts at Boise State.
The addition of Tavon Austin now gives the Bills a player with a ton of experience that can compete for that role. The biggest question is how he will do at this point in his career as he will be 32 years old entering the season.
It will also be interesting to see if the Bills give Austin a look on kickoffs as well since he does have 25 career kickoff returns but18 of those came in his rookie season.
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In the end, this is a low-risk move that could end up being exactly what the Bills need on special teams.