Dallas Cowboys: The curious case of tight end Rico Gathers

Rico Gathers has the potential to be the Dallas Cowboys best tight end for years to come. But is being the heir to Jason Witten a real possibility?

Dallas Cowboys tight end Rico Gathers is entering his third year with the team. There seems to be a growing sense around the team that this is his time to prove if he can be the heir to retired tight end Jason Witten.

Would another role serve him better though?

Since 2014, the Cowboys have been a top-five rushing team three out of the four years. To facilitate this they tend to play a lot of ’12’ personnel ( two tight end packages) as well as ’11’ personnel (one back one tight end) with a high-quality blocking tight end.

Tight ends in Dallas must be able to block if they want to be three down players. Gathers though, is at his best as a receiver and at his worst as a blocker.

Jason Witten was the Hall of Fame example of what the team wants in their starting tight end.

Due to what the Cowboys ask in an every-down tight end, it’s much more likely that tight ends Geoff Swaim, Blake Jarwin, and Dalton Shultz get the full-time job.

But the depth at the position and Gather’s weaknesses shouldn’t be a negative. In fact, it makes the team more dangerous.

The Cowboys have to do multiple things to change their offensive woes from last season.

Amongst those changes, an explosive receiving threat, as well as an overall uptick in creativity, were both sorely needed.

Rico has the potential to check both those off of the to-do list. As a reference, I will use Packers tight end Jimmy Graham and his years with the New Orleans Saints.