Bless Austin yet another CB in the Seahawks endless search for help
By Lee Vowell
On Sunday, the Seahawks made yet another move to find a cornerback that will help them in 2021. Former Jet Bless Austin is the next piece in the puzzle that doesn’t seem to be able to be solved. The Jets released Austin this past Wednesday and Seattle signed him on Sunday.
New York releasing Austin is pretty odd so it might make 12s wonder what they are getting with Austin. Yes, the Jets were bad last year but Austin was by far the worst player they had. Pro Football Focus gave Austin a 51.1 grade for the season but he was 70.9 against the run. Austin was the 96th-highest-graded cornerback in 2021, Tre Flowers, in comparison, was 54.4. But Flowers had more overall talent around him than Austin did.
Austin is 6’1″ and 200 pounds so he seems to be continuing Seattle’s recent trend of adding taller cornerbacks (like Flowers and Ahkello Witherspoon) who are also really thin. But as a sixth-round draft pick in 2019, Austin wasn’t expected to do a whole lot so maybe his size has helped him.
Seahawks sign Bless Austin in attempt to find the answer at CB
Because in his rookie season of 2019, Austin wasn’t awful. He started 6 games and had a PFF grade of 71.4. In fact, Austin started 6 games in 2019 and 10 more in 2020 so it is even more confusing why the Jets released him as they don’t have a clear player to take his place. Austin did miss the Jets second preseason game due to a “personal” matter but there is no hint that this is some kind of bigger issue that will affect him in the future.
Austin was targeted 73 times in 2020 and allowed 48 completions. The good thing is those completions only ended up averaging 10 yards a catch. Former Seahawk Shaquill Griffin never had that low of number and in 2020 gave up 11.9 yards a reception. Griffin was Seattle’s best corner over the last few years.
Maybe Austin finds a home with the Seahawks and does really well. Or maybe Seattle continues to try to find an answer for who will play CB for them in 2021. The problem with this is that it was clear CB was going to be an area of concern heading into this season and it’s no better, possibly worse, now.
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Seattle has traded for Sidney Jones, traded Witherspoon, signed Austin all within a week. To see a team obviously trying to work out an issue in a mad rush before the season begins is good drama but just not good for the hearts of 12s.