Dallas Cowboys Tight End Rico Gathers’ days may be numbered with America’s Team, at least if you put any stock into what Jerry Jones recently said.
“He blocks well when he’s blocking the right man,” said Jones, via Jon Machota of The Dallas Morning News. “He’s got enough there, but the angst comes when you’re sitting there looking at the guy that’s not on the roster because you kept him on the roster.”
Whether intentional or not, that’s as close to a backhanded compliment as could be. Jerry Jones certainly doesn’t make it sound like he’s going to be pounding the table for Rico Gathers when final cuts are made, and I’m not sure the Cowboys coaching staff will be either.
Whether you choose to believe it or not, the Dallas Cowboys have already all but moved on from Gathers. His “flash” plays have kept him on the roster up until this point, but I wouldn’t hold my breath he makes the final cuts this time.
The sad truth is, Rico Gathers has been his own worst enemy since entering the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys. He’s admittted he wasn’t as focused on football as he should’ve been early on in the process and it’s coming back to haunt him now.
Gathers knows the writing is on the wall and his time with the Cowboys is coming to an end. He admitted as much earlier in the offseason when he said he was trying to make “somebody’s roster”, instead of Dallas’. It may have been a Freudian slip of the mouth at the time, but a truthful one.
For those of you who want to see more of Rico Gathers, this will without a doubt come as bad news to you. There is no denying Gathers is a physical specimen with a large catching radius. We all witnessed that last Saturday with his highlight reel catch against the Cincinnati Bengals.
There aren’t many receivers or tight ends in the NFL who can make those kind of plays, which is one of the reasons Cowboys fans are still holding out hope Gathers can turn the corner. Unfortunately, I think it’s a little too late for that.
If we have learned anything so far in preseason and training camp, then Geoff Swaim, Blake Jarwin, and Dalton Schultz are all more pro-ready than Gathers and have the trust of their QB and coaching staff. Sometimes we just have to look at the bigger picture and realized that our “pet cats” just aren’t living up to our unrealistic expectations.
Rico Gathers may very well succeed with his next team, if he gets another chance, but his days in Dallas are certainly numbered. So if you need to, going prepare yourself not to see Gathers’ name on the 53-man when roster cuts are finalized for the Cowboys.
