Philadelphia Eagles: 3 free agents who could replace Marquise Goodwin
By David Esser
The Philadelphia Eagles could target former Cowboy Tavon Austin as practice squad depth.
Arguably one of the biggest NFL busts of the last decade or so, Tavon Austin has done very little to justify the eighth overall pick that was used on him. After spending the first five years of his career with the Rams (where he was probably a better rusher than he was receiver), Austin was acquired by the Dallas Cowboys in 2018.
Austin didn’t do much with Dallas the two years he was with them, recording just 21 catches for 317 yards. He really didn’t see the field a whole lot either, as he was buried behind guys like Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, and Randall Cobb (2019) in the Cowboys’ depth chart.
In all reality, Austin isn’t very good, and he would do very little in the sense of “replacing” Marquise Goodwin. However, where the thought of bringing him in starts to intrigue me revolves around the idea of utilizing the practice squad.
Teams are now allowed to send a veteran down to their practice squad due to COVID-19, and Austin would make a prime candidate for that role. The Eagles obviously want to keep as many receivers as possible due to the injury disaster that took place last year, but you run a huge risk with sending Quez Watkins or Greg Ward down, as they would likely get claimed.
With Austin, there’s essentially zero risk he would get poached by another team. The Eagles staff could work with him on the practice squad, familiarizing him with the playbook just in case they need him to appear on the active roster. There was talk of even moving Goodwin himself down to the PS, so this replacement makes sense in that regard.
Austin isn’t an “improvement” like that of Gabriel, but he is one more layer of insurance added to the Eagles WR room. If the entire group does down to injury like last year, at least you have one extra veteran to call upon.