Here's who's earning praise instead of Rico

Bobhaze

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Rico Gathers is one of the more fan over-hyped guys in recent Cowboys history who has never even been active for an NFL game yet. Rico has yet to show anything other than in shorts or against preseason 3rd stringers who will never play on Sundays. And after a short round of OTA's, it wasn't Rico who was getting the kudos from the FO and coaches as the up and coming TE so far.

Drum roll....it's Blake Jarwin.

Both Jason Garrett and VP of Player Personnel Will McClay have publicly tabbed Jarwin as a guy who has impressed them so far. Neither has had anything to say about Rico without a reporter asking them how Rico is doing. Their responses are much more muted than with Jarwin.

Last year after Geoff Swaim went down with a knee injury, the Cowboys brought Jarwin up from the practice squad for a short stint. He didn't light the world on fire but McClay has said the Eagles were about ready to snatch Jarwin off the practice squad before the Cowboys brought him up.

Let me clarify- I'm not proclaiming Blake Jarwin as the next Jason Witten or that he's about to catch 50 passes next year. But I am going to say that Rico is running a distant 4th in TE depth chart behind Swaim, Jarwin and rookie 4th rounder Dalton Schultz. And the early comments coming from Garrett on Rico aren't exactly glowing.

It's too early to say the "Rico Gathers experiment" is over, but the big guy has a ton of improving to do just to make the 53 man roster. Being an "athletic specimen" is not enough to be on an NFL roster. The clock is ticking on Rico and he has lots of impressing to do to salvage even making this team. TRaining Camp is now or never for the big guy.

Below are a couple of links to stories on this topic.

https://www.bloggingtheboys.com/201...oys-offense-in-2018-blake-jarwin-tavon-austin

https://247sports.com/nfl/dallas-co...ers-progress-He-needs-more-football-118656733
 

OmerV

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If he doesn't make an impression in training camp, he should (and most likely will) be cut. I don't see us carrying 4 TEs this year, although I guess we could put one of them on practice squad.

I'm not sure Swaim would be eligible for the practice squad, and probably wouldn't be a consideration for the team anyway since he is the only TE with any real NFL experience, limited though it may be. And I don't think the Cowboys will risk exposing either Jarwin or Schultz to waivers by trying to put them on the practice squad. So in my mind, if the team decides to only keep 3 TE's on the roster Gathers is the only one the team might try to slide to the practice squad. Or they might let him go. The obvious wild card is not knowing how Gathers has progressed, but so far there hasn't been any real buzz about him.
 

BourbonBalz

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I'm not sure Swaim would be eligible for the practice squad, and probably wouldn't be a consideration for the team anyway since he is the only TE with any real NFL experience, limited though it may be. And I don't think the Cowboys will risk exposing either Jarwin or Schultz to waivers by trying to put them on the practice squad. So in my mind, if the team decides to only keep 3 TE's on the roster Gathers is the only one the team might try to slide to the practice squad. Or they might let him go. The obvious wild card is not knowing how Gathers has progressed, but so far there hasn't been any real buzz about him.

Yeah, it's just a wait and see at this point. I know Gathers is new to football and is a physical freak, but if you don't show something in your third season, it's time to end the experiment and use and develop the other three options that are actually football players.
 

FuzzyLumpkins

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Rico Gathers is one of the more fan over-hyped guys in recent Cowboys history who has never even been active for an NFL game yet. Rico has yet to show anything other than in shorts or against preseason 3rd stringers who will never play on Sundays. And after a short round of OTA's, it wasn't Rico who was getting the kudos from the FO and coaches as the up and coming TE so far.

Drum roll....it's Blake Jarwin.

Both Jason Garrett and VP of Player Personnel Will McClay have publicly tabbed Jarwin as a guy who has impressed them so far. Neither has had anything to say about Rico without a reporter asking them how Rico is doing. Their responses are much more muted than with Jarwin.

Last year after Geoff Swaim went down with a knee injury, the Cowboys brought Jarwin up from the practice squad for a short stint. He didn't light the world on fire but McClay has said the Eagles were about ready to snatch Jarwin off the practice squad before the Cowboys brought him up.

Let me clarify- I'm not proclaiming Blake Jarwin as the next Jason Witten or that he's about to catch 50 passes next year. But I am going to say that Rico is running a distant 4th in TE depth chart behind Swaim, Jarwin and rookie 4th rounder Dalton Schultz. And the early comments coming from Garrett on Rico aren't exactly glowing.

It's too early to say the "Rico Gathers experiment" is over, but the big guy has a ton of improving to do just to make the 53 man roster. Being an "athletic specimen" is not enough to be on an NFL roster. The clock is ticking on Rico and he has lots of impressing to do to salvage even making this team. TRaining Camp is now or never for the big guy.

Below are a couple of links to stories on this topic.

https://www.bloggingtheboys.com/201...oys-offense-in-2018-blake-jarwin-tavon-austin

https://247sports.com/nfl/dallas-co...ers-progress-He-needs-more-football-118656733

You find praise about Jarwin from OTA's where they don't even wear shells compelling?

I still take Rico's performance in preseason games over that.

You have no idea what the depth chart is.
 

Jake

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I'm not sure Swaim would be eligible for the practice squad, and probably wouldn't be a consideration for the team anyway since he is the only TE with any real NFL experience, limited though it may be. And I don't think the Cowboys will risk exposing either Jarwin or Schultz to waivers by trying to put them on the practice squad. So in my mind, if the team decides to only keep 3 TE's on the roster Gathers is the only one the team might try to slide to the practice squad. Or they might let him go. The obvious wild card is not knowing how Gathers has progressed, but so far there hasn't been any real buzz about him.

There's also UDFA David Wells, who could be a PS candidate.

I don't see Rico on the PS this year. If he can't make the roster, then it's time to move on. They don't all turn into Antonio Gates.
 

Diehardblues

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I have a feeling if the kid from Stanford( Schwartz is it?) is not our future TE he’s not on our roster.

Regardless , I’d expect a pretty good drop off from the TE position in passing production compared to Witten era which might not be a negative. We could pick it up from other positions.
 

Diehardblues

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I truly don’t understand the criticism of Rico. I thought he looked very interesting in his limited action last year in pre season.

For a 7th round pick he definitely has some promise . I suspect if we waive him he’ll be picked up immediately. If he’s healthy we need to figure out how to use him because not only does his size create huge mismatches he’s got hands. If nothing else could be a Redzone threat.

If we can teach Dez to run a route surely we can Rico. And with a QB who needs a reciever to have seperation his size and reach might be just what Dak needs.
 

gimmesix

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I'd almost say that Jarwin has received more hype than Rico. Some act like he might be the second coming of Witten just because we didn't want teams to poach him last year and he's received some praise. Gathers had a better preseason last year than Jarwin (7-106, 2 TDs for Gathers compared to 4-31, 0 TDs for Jarwin).

Frankly, I don't know if either of them will turn out to be worth anything and both could fall in behind Swaim, Schultz or Wells at this point. There are examples of other bit players who received praise who went on to do nothing for this team so I'll wait and see who steps forward if any of them do and we're not just settling for the best of a weak bunch.
 

Idgit

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They've been telling us since last year that it's going to be Jarwin. When Witten said it, that's when I started paying attention to it. And it's carried through OTAs so far, too. They like him.

He'll start the season at TE2 and we'll see how he does from there.
 

RustyBourneHorse

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Rico Gathers is one of the more fan over-hyped guys in recent Cowboys history who has never even been active for an NFL game yet. Rico has yet to show anything other than in shorts or against preseason 3rd stringers who will never play on Sundays. And after a short round of OTA's, it wasn't Rico who was getting the kudos from the FO and coaches as the up and coming TE so far.

Drum roll....it's Blake Jarwin.

Both Jason Garrett and VP of Player Personnel Will McClay have publicly tabbed Jarwin as a guy who has impressed them so far. Neither has had anything to say about Rico without a reporter asking them how Rico is doing. Their responses are much more muted than with Jarwin.

Last year after Geoff Swaim went down with a knee injury, the Cowboys brought Jarwin up from the practice squad for a short stint. He didn't light the world on fire but McClay has said the Eagles were about ready to snatch Jarwin off the practice squad before the Cowboys brought him up.

Let me clarify- I'm not proclaiming Blake Jarwin as the next Jason Witten or that he's about to catch 50 passes next year. But I am going to say that Rico is running a distant 4th in TE depth chart behind Swaim, Jarwin and rookie 4th rounder Dalton Schultz. And the early comments coming from Garrett on Rico aren't exactly glowing.

It's too early to say the "Rico Gathers experiment" is over, but the big guy has a ton of improving to do just to make the 53 man roster. Being an "athletic specimen" is not enough to be on an NFL roster. The clock is ticking on Rico and he has lots of impressing to do to salvage even making this team. TRaining Camp is now or never for the big guy.

Below are a couple of links to stories on this topic.

https://www.bloggingtheboys.com/201...oys-offense-in-2018-blake-jarwin-tavon-austin

https://247sports.com/nfl/dallas-co...ers-progress-He-needs-more-football-118656733

I do like what I'm hearing about Jarwin. Looks like he it was a smashing idea to keep him away from Philly. As for Rico Gathers, I'm afraid that I don't see him making the 53 as a TE, but I do reckon that he'd be a decent DT if he'd be willing to give it a go.
 

BAT

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I have a feeling if the kid from Stanford( Schwartz is it?) is not our future TE he’s not on our roster.

Regardless , I’d expect a pretty good drop off from the TE position in passing production compared to Witten era which might not be a negative. We could pick it up from other positions.

Because his name is Schultz, not Schwartz.
 

RustyBourneHorse

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Its going to be bad when Rico leaves and goes to a team where he's is actually put in a position to succeed and we see what we could have had.

Unfortunately, you can't keep everyone on the team, can you? Quite the decision at TE the coaches will have. Still, if we were to move him to DT or DE, then we could always bring him back to TE on the goal line if needed. I think that could be a solution to two problems. I think he'd be good on the DLine with his size and quickness, and he could also be a goal line TE if needed. That'd be brilliant for us, I reckon.
 
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