timeline
summer 2017 - team talked very positively about uncle rico including witten
2017 season - rico was not removed from ir even though it would seem he should have recovered by the middle of the season. note that rico cannot practice with the team on ir.
after 2017 season - negative reports of rico. also rico made statements that implied he should have been taken off ir. rico may have 'liked' a negative garrett tweet
summer 2018 - negative statements about rico.
last 7 days - stephen said rico improved but yet he gets almost no snaps in the 1st half. other tightends do not play well.
it makes no sense for the team to pump him up in 2017 as possible heir but then kill him a year later. you dont forget how to play after a few months.
furthermore, rico clearly is a good pass catcher and much more talented in that than the other candidates, but yet the focus is on blocking. yet we all know there are many tightends that are very successful that do not block.
why not play rico where he is useful instead of forcing him to play like witten.
of course they talked positively of him. because he had potential...what did you expect for them to say he sucks and in two years we will cut him!!!! come on you can't be that naïve....
and in the NFL until this year, if you went on IR, you could not come back for the remainder of the regular season. even if he recovered. rules are rules. and if they didn't put him on IR, then you lose a spot on the 53 man roster. with that said, that was a great opportunity for Rico. study play book, watch film. LEARN.
negative news, perhaps coming out of the IR, he still didn't know his assignments. he still didn't know the playbook. and probably (I wasn't in the building, but neither were you), he wasn't studying film and showing expected dedication of someone who was declaring he is about to take the NFL by storm...he said it. not coaches. not you. not me. him opening his mouth. some call it confidence. most call it stupidity. great ones never gloat (well 99% don't).
and by 2018, 3 years, he still doesn't kow the play book. he still doesn't know his assignment. perhaps he thought this is flag football, just show up, run around and catch a few balls and you are a star....all the coaches and even Stephen and jerry said, he needs to continue to improve and he is got ways to go....
I guess rico got the message....you actually have to put in a lot of work and study....that's the part people forget....to be good at NFL craft.....thus he maybe improving.
they didn't kill him...its you fans think he is being killed because he represents a mytic TE to the fan club.... they didn't pump him up, they talked positive, doesn't mean he made the team. doesn't mean he is great. doesn't mean anything at that point.....
rico is a good pass catcher. and he is more athletically talented....perhaps not as football talented....there is a big difference between the two. and regardless of what everyone says, he needs to block or attempt to block as a TE. If he doesn't and everytime he is in a game, he is going on routes, then the offense is predictable and I can adjust my defense accordingly. if he can't pick up a blitzer or and edge rusher and zeke or Dak get killed because he whiffed, you would be screaming for his head on a platter...even Zeke has to block. even WRs have to block. its fundamental to football, but average NFL madden playing, fantasy football playing fan is only focused on passing yards and catches. and they are not asking him to be a great blocker, but understanding his assignments and attempt to make a block....if he doesn't know his assignments....that's on him. there is plenty of film, playbook and coaches teaching. perhaps he is an athlete and not a football players and there in lies the big difference.
they are not forcing him to play like witten. they know he is light years away from that. they are trying to get him to have basic fundamentals of football as a TE not just catch passes. again, that makes him extremely one dimentional and easy to defend. I see him on my side as a defender, I am just blitzing the back field, either he is going on a route and I get a free shot or he is blocking air...either way, I get to the RB or QB.
