I'm not sure Witten getting penalized is anything new. Seems like he gets holding and false start calls plenty, and it's been that way for awhile. But maybe someone will tell me if I'm imagining that.
That said, plucking our project TE off the injured reserve and sending him "across the middle" isn't going to automatically stop defenses from focusing on our #1 WR or our slot receiver (who Dak has shown a willingness to throw to plenty when defenses aren't smothering him). If we replaced Witten with Gathers next week, the defense would still be preoccupied with Dez and, on 3rd down, with Beasley much more than Gathers. If Gathers put together a good month of regular season work against starting defenses, maybe then he'd start to pull focus from others. But nobody is going to divert resources from Dez or Beasley based on Gathers being tall and having a couple nice preseason games months ago (and a major injury ago).
Also, even with Witten's penalty issues, despite Gathers being younger and more physically imposing, he's still a worse blocker than every other TE on our roster. Which makes it harder to put him on the field if it's a down where running is a possibility.
I suppose my reply would be until we get Rico involved..
it's difficult to know.
As far as his blocking..
we went thru this Escobar.
He couldn't block either.
And when I think about Gronk,
same size as Rico..
and I have never ever heard about his blocking.
Only his catching and TDs.
And with 5 #1 picks on the OL and 3 All Pros..
you would think they could get it done all by themselves.
Maybe I expect too much.
But it seems that something else is going on..
like if he plays in so many games he gets more bonuses they don't want to do.
It's fuzzy to me.
The backup TEs have never done much..
Fasano was traded..
Bennett was not resigned.
Escobar wasted away.
Rico, too ?