Gathers is an absolute Beast and smooth as Silk

[Shinaoi]

On blogging the boys, there is a poll on who gets cut for Gregory, and Rico is leading the votes.

 

[Doomsday101]

I get that he was at the end of his career, but it's not accurate that he "hogged snaps."
The OC puts the offensive scheme in place and the plays are called. He was still a threat and a great leader.

The main issue is that we didn't have anyone who was a better TE.

Yeah all he did was get open despite not being fast and moved the chains. Witten was the safety net for Romo and then Dak, not always a 1st option but they knew where he would be and knew he would make the catch.

 

[Billyd]

Some balance..Rico is not very mature..Has the skills to be a great Tight end receiving, but does not understand that blocking is more important in the Cowboys scheme..for instance this is what he said recently,

Per Bill Russell. "RICO - I can block, just not the way they want me to" You mean you cant block...This is his problem....

SWAIM and Jarwin are your starters and your questions about them will be answered shortly..Swaim is the best blocker, But can catch and dependable..Jarwin is athletic, not real fast but catches the ball well..Not sure about his blocking yet.. Shultzy can duet it all, but he is a rook and willl be relegated to learning this year unless injuriez show up...

RICO has everything but a brain!!

 

[Shinaoi]

Some balance..Rico is not very mature..Has the skills to be a great Tight end receiving, but does not understand that blocking is more important in the Cowboys scheme..for instance this is what he said recently,

Per Bill Russell. "RICO - I can block, just not the way they want me to" You mean you cant block...This is his problem....

SWAIM and Jarwin are your starters and your questions about them will be answered shortly..Swaim is the best blocker, But can catch and dependable..Jarwin is athletic is not real fast but catches the ball well..Not sure about hos blocking yet.. Shuktzy can duet it all, but he is a rook and willl be relegated to learning this year unless injuriez show up...

RICO has everything but a brain!!

Supposedly what he mean by he can block is that from a two point stance and in motion. He just has trouble blocking in a three point stance. Granted that’s just what I read.

 

[LACowboysFan1]

Some balance..Rico is not very mature..Has the skills to be a great Tight end receiving, but does not understand that blocking is more important in the Cowboys scheme..for instance this is what he said recently,

Per Bill Russell. "RICO - I can block, just not the way they want me to" You mean you cant block...This is his problem....

SWAIM and Jarwin are your starters and your questions about them will be answered shortly..Swaim is the best blocker, But can catch and dependable..Jarwin is athletic is not real fast but catches the ball well..Not sure about hos blocking yet.. Shuktzy can duet it all, but he is a rook and willl be relegated to learning this year unless injuriez show up...

RICO has everything but a brain!!

Pretty clear at this point Swaim is penciled in as the starter, and I think due to his time on the team it would take a huge pre-season by one of the others to knock him out of that spot.

Cowboys have in recent years tended to go with the experienced guy, vs the rookie, if there's one available, though as with Zeke there are exceptions. None of the other tight ends have a large advantage over Swaim in any area...

 

[Billyd]

Stop, the Cowboys havent done Rico too many favors. They should have activated him in the middle of last season..That was Stephens call..RICO will either show the Cowboys he will block like they require, or he will hit the bricks..Thats on Rico..They have done everything they can to motivate him!

 

[Billyd]

Supposedly what he mean by he can block is that from a two point stance and in motion. He just has trouble blocking in a three point stance. Granted that’s just what I read.

What i have seen from this site somewhere was he doesnt sustain, doesnt search out the biggest threat, and doesnt have the mauler mentality when he outwieghs lbrs by thirty pounds. CAN YOU TEACH HIM...They have tried..This latest stupidity has pretty much explained to me what he is..immature, and prone to forgetting he is not in charge!

 

[Billyd]

Pretty clear at this point Swaim is penciled in as the starter, and I think due to his time on the team it would take a huge pre-season by one of the others to knock him out of that spot.

Cowboys have in recent years tended to go with the experienced guy, vs the rookie, if there's one available, though as with Zeke there are exceptions. None of the other tight ends have a large advantage over Swaim in any area...

AGREED, and I think Swaim is the one who got most of what Witten could teach..He has soft hands and catches pretty much what you pass to him..Not alot of speed but plenty enough to be successful. JARWIN i havent seen enough to form an opinion but coaches and JJ and Stephen high on him...I thought they might have been using Jarwin to motivate Rico but I think Rico just pigheaded!

 

[G2]

Yeah all he did was get open despite not being fast and moved the chains. Witten was the safety net for Romo and then Dak, not always a 1st option but they knew where he would be and knew he would make the catch.

For someone that was SO SLOW, he sure did create separation and get open a lot. He is the all time receiving leader.

 

[Doomsday101]

For someone that was SO SLOW, he sure did create separation and get open a lot. He is the all time receiving leader.

I agree. Main thing he was the guy the QB trusted, they knew Witten would be where he needed to be and they knew he would make the catch to pick up the 1st.

 

[Billyd]

Yeah all he did was get open despite not being fast and moved the chains. Witten was the safety net for Romo and then Dak, not always a 1st option but they knew where he would be and knew he would make the catch.

I look at it like this..the Cowboys require their tightens to be at least capable of blocking when they ask..It is very important for them to feel like their tightends can pull off their whole assignment and be interchangeable..

Rico screams we are going to pass when he comes in.. personally if I have a guy that big who can win ballgamez catching tds..Then i will figure out a way to mitigate his blocking downside..But its not my call..Further i believe if thats what they require then he needs to duet..He hasnt so far!

 

[Billyd]

For someone that was SO SLOW, he sure did create separation and get open a lot. He is the all time receiving leader.

Witten was never fast!

 

[Billyd]

Supposedly what he mean by he can block is that from a two point stance and in motion. He just has trouble blocking in a three point stance. Granted that’s just what I read.

Bahahaha..No Rico wants to lay an arm on their back or shield em..This is bs!

 

[Doomsday101]

I look at it like this..the Cowboys require their tightens to be at least capable of blocking when they ask..It is very important for them to feel like their tightends can pull off their whole assignment and be interchangeable..

Rico screams we are going to pass when he comes in.. personally if I have a guy that big who can win ballgamez catching tds..Then i will figure out a way to mitigate his blocking downside..But its not my call..Further i believe if thats what they require then he needs to duet..He hasnt so far!

We hope that is the case but really in pre season he was playing vs backups and 3rd string players. That is not a put down but a reality, so how well he would do vs top defenders is anyone guess. As for blocking I don't think he has to be a master of blocking but you do need to be able to seal off the edge using leverage, I doubt they are looking for him to get on a block and maintain the block for a period of time

 

[Billyd]

We hope that is the case but really in pre season he was playing vs backups and 3rd string players. That is not a put down but a reality, so how well he would do vs top defenders is anyone guess. As for blocking I don't think he has to be a master of blocking but you do need to be able to seal off the edge using leverage, I doubt they are looking for him to get on a block and maintain the block for a period of time

He doesnt do that consistently..or hasnt up till now..i agree he didnt do it in the regular season..Im going to be very clear, Rico could have passed the concussion protocal the second week of the season, Stephen saw a way to protect him from other teams with the ir exception, the problem was after all of us read, that they wanted to protect Jarwin from Philly..

Rico was available to come off The Exception Ir 7 games in, in my opinion they should have activated him and found out last season..So some of this on Stephen.

 

[LACowboysFan1]

I agree. Main thing he was the guy the QB trusted, they knew Witten would be where he needed to be and they knew he would make the catch to pick up the 1st.

Witten's last 4 years, when supposedly he was too old and too slow, he had a catch percentage of no worse than 71.1, and the other three years it was higher than that.

The supposedly great Rob Gronkowski's catch percentage the last 4 years was 65.8 at best/

The value of a tight end varies, the Pats want him downfield, the Cowboys wanted first downs or at least the avoidance of an incompletion or sack, so Witt was useful for that...

 

[Billyd]

Witten's last 4 years, when supposedly he was too old and too slow, he had a catch percentage of no worse than 71.1, and the other three years it was higher than that.

The supposedly great Rob Gronkowski's catch percentage the last 4 years was 65.8 at best/

The value of a tight end varies, the Pats want him downfield, the Cowboys wanted first downs or at least the avoidance of an incompletion or sack, so Witt was useful for that...

AGREED, Swaim has caught 9-11..

The coaching staff has a reason for why they left Swaim to block, and why Witten caught most of the passes last two years..They trusted Witten..They used swaim much more in the passing game in 2016 but Hanna allegedly healed up so they went with more experience last year..Not any shot at at swaim he played plenty snaps last year, and is a devastating blocker.

 

[Doomsday101]

Witten's last 4 years, when supposedly he was too old and too slow, he had a catch percentage of no worse than 71.1, and the other three years it was higher than that.

The supposedly great Rob Gronkowski's catch percentage the last 4 years was 65.8 at best/

The value of a tight end varies, the Pats want him downfield, the Cowboys wanted first downs or at least the avoidance of an incompletion or sack, so Witt was useful for that...

True 2 different TE with different responsibilities. I have always seen Witten as an all around true TE, many TE are more or less WR who are labeled as a TE.

 

[Doomsday101]

He doesnt do that consistently..or hasnt up till now..i agree he didnt do it in the regular season..Im going to be very clear, Rico could have passed the concussion protocal the second week of the season, Stephen saw a way to protect him from other teams with the ir exception, the problem was after all of us read, that they wanted to protect Jarwin from Philly..

Rico was available to come off The Exception Ir 7 games in, in my opinion they should have activated him and found out last season..So some of this on Stephen.

Not going to say you are wrong but evidently Cowboys did not want to release a player to make room on the 53 man roster at that stage. I clearly see your point of getting Rico in but organization evidently were not ready to bring him up and release a player to do so

 

[LocimusPrime]

I love blockers. They are important in the run game