They used Bennett the same way. He was the team's best blocker and most athletic talent at TE, but he had not grasp the position (so they said), ..Sounds familiar does it?
Rico Gathers won Mr. Basketball in the state of LA. LA per capita puts the most football players in the NFL. His brother Greg was a starting DE in the ACC, former All American, and was the sack leader at GTech. So he knows football. Because his brother had kidney issues and his cousin Hank Gathers did was a college basketball great, he was pushed to basketball.
If you can not find a position for this kind of God given athlete, you do not know talent or how to coach:
6 ft 6 1⁄4 in
(1.99 m)273 lb
(124 kg)35 in
(0.89 m)11.2 in
(0.28 m)4.66 s1.71 s2.79 s4.56 s34.5 in
(0.88 m)9 ft 7 in
(2.92 m)16 reps
All values from Baylor pro day.[4]
I saw MartyB in person at training camp and he was one of the most impressive players in practice if you just focused on the "highlights".
He could dominate in receiving drills against Safeties then go to the blocking drills with the OLine and be very good in 1-on-1 drills against DLinemen.
The issue was that he moped around most of the time like expending any effort was killing him.
While great in drills some days (other days he didn't try), in full team action he never knew where to line up and continually made mistakes with the coaches and other players constantly telling him what he should have done.
In games it was similar. He was great in 1-on-1 inline blocking where he just had to block the guy in front of him with minimal thought.
When they wanted the TE to function as a move-TE (H-Back, or any type of movement) they used John Phillips who himself said he physically couldn't match-up with MartyB in 1-on-1 blocking.
As a receiver in games MartyB was all over the place in routes and we could often see Romo telling him where to line up.
MartyB carved out a decent career with his best year being 2014 in Chicago. His career high was 910 yards in a season and 7 TDs in a season (For reference Gronk's career highs were 1327 yards and 17 TDs).
MartyB probably had as much physical talent (bigger with similar speed) as Gronkowski but he just didn't have the mental-makeup to accept coaching to become an elite player.
Rico has similarities to MartyB. Very big and athletic. He can block really well in 1-on-1 drills but in full team practices or games he makes many mistakes. He has flashed as receiver but last year he looked sluggish from speed perspective. He said he was keeping his weight lower than it had been but he just didn't "look" as athletic in training camp or in games as he had previously.
Many offenses like the Rams have trended towards a focus on precision blocking more than brute force blocking, especially by TEs and WRs.
The Cowboys have also preferred precision blocker at TE over brute force blockers. They've had some TE in training camp over the years that were excellent point of attach blockers but made too many mistakes and didn't make the roster. They used players like James Hanna who was a precision type blocker that knew the scheme and could function in any of the blocking roles. He was never much of a threat as a receiver despite excellent speed.
In 2018 after Swaim was out, Jarwin was the receiving TE, Schultz was the blocking TE and Rico was the 3rd TE. Schultz ended up playing double the snaps of Rico.
For Rico Fan Boyz:
There is no way the Cowboys prioritized a rookie 4th round pick over Rico who they had already paid about 1M for two years of playing zero regular season games prior to 2018.
For Rico Critics:
Rico is about on pace with what should be expected of a player that didn't play college football. The 1st two years with the Cowboys being his replacement for college and 2018 being the equivalent of his rookie season (His 1st season playing any snaps in real games).
The Cowboys developed college basketball player Jermey Parnell into an NFL starter (for another team). Parnell was a quality backup OT but it was his 4th season when he become The Swing Tackle for the Cowboys.
Rico still has a chance in 2019 to do something. The 2019 training camp should be considered equivalent of a normal 2nd year player that experienced some real game action as a rookie.
Obviously the odds are against him with Jarwin and Scultz both being ahead of him on the depth chart in 2018. Witten is back but it's not Witten that Rico is competing against. Rico needs to compete with Jarwin as a receiver or Schultz as a blocker.