The Dallas Cowboys released tight end Rico Gathers on Monday evening, bringing a merciful end to an experiment well past its expiration date.
Even before Jason Witten‘s sudden retirement during the 2018 NFL Draft, the Dallas Cowboys were searching for a long-term answer at tight end. That was only exacerbated by Witten’s shocking decision that left the team, more or less, scrambling. Through all that searching for the next tight end, though, many fans still held hope that Rico Gathers could be the guy.
On Monday evening, that hope circled the drain as the Cowboys announced that they waived the tight end after three seasons in Dallas. At this point, that shouldn’t come as a shock — even to those that always held onto optimism that Gathers would one day break out.
From the moment that he joined America’s Team, Gathers was always going to be a project, an experiment. A college basketball player at Baylore, he decided his best professional prospects lied with the NFL. With no high-end football experience, though, any team taking him on would basically be molding a massive, athletic ball of clay and hoping that whatever form they molded held.
The Cowboys were the team most ready to take that chance, selecting him in the sixth round of the 2016 draft. With the transition ahead of him, it then wasn’t surprising that the tight end didn’t see any regular season action throughout the 2016 and 2017 seasons with Dallas, though he did start to flash in the 2017 preseason at times.
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Throughout any flashes and work on the practice squad, some layer of optimism always hung around. After all, the notion of a 6-7 tight end with fantastic strength and natural athleticism as a big-play and red-zone passing threat was always enticing. And Gathers always seemed to show just enough to keep fans and the team interested.
In 2018, however, Gathers finally saw time on the 53-man roster but still proved that he wasn’t ready. As had been the case on the practice squad, the playbook, an adequate football IQ and most things short of just trying to “out-athlete” your opponent eluded the tight end. Thus, he ended the year with just three catches for 45 yards in the regular season.
This all leads to Monday and the Cowboys’ decision to cut ties with the former Baylor basketball star. With Gathers facing a one-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy, the team had reached a crossroads and had a simple question to ask: After three years and plenty of reps in the preseason and practice, how much upside was left in this experiment?
Dallas seemingly found that answer. With Blake Jarwin, Dalton Schultz and Witten returning from the ESPN broadcast booth, Gathers was fighting for a roster spot buried on the depth chart at best, barring a remarkable level of progress. And given the tight end’s shortcomings through three seasons, it was high time for the team to cut their losses and put an end to any remaining glimmer of hope that this would finally be the year Gathers put the pieces together.