in the end probably as a PS player but who knows?
Tight end Rico Gathers is listed at 6-foot-6, 273 pounds. He averaged 11 points a game his senior season at Baylor as a basketball forward while averaging close to 26 minutes a game. After finishing his career, he decided to pick up the game of football, the first time he stepped on a field since he was in eighth grade. 24 teams showed up at his pro day to see his natural athleticism. There, he ran a 40 of 4.75 seconds, which would’ve made him the seventh best score amongst tight ends at the combine. The Cowboys took a flyer on him by drafting him in the sixth round hoping to tap into his abilities and development him into the weapon of the future.
Yet when it’s all said and done, he might not make this team.
Why? The Cowboys may have hitched their wagon to Austin Traylor.
Back in May, the Cowboys worked out a handful of tryout players following the draft; one of those players was Traylor. The undrafted rookie from Wisconsin signed shortly after his workout; at the time, it seemed as if Traylor was brought in to just fill the final spot on the 90 man roster. How could he be expected to contribute to a team boasting the ageless Jason Witten, returning veterans James Hanna and Gavin Escobar and emerging young players in Geoff Swaim and Rico Gathers?
Call it a stroke of luck, or even divine fate, but Traylor found a way to get reps. Even with Escobar returning earlier than expected he has been limited and Hanna, on the flip side, remains on PUP. With Hanna being the best blocker of the bunch, an immediate need opened up that hasn’t been able to be filled by either Swaim or Gathers. Swaim has been a “get in the way” type of blocker; someone who gets in front of his man but doesn’t have the ability to steer him. That’s a necessity in the Dallas scheme. Gathers is still trying to learn the difference between a down block and an elbow screen.
With a team committed to running the football, the tight ends must be committed to blocking, and that’s what Traylor can do.
At Wisconsin, he was used primarily for that purpose; he played at several spots on the field including in-line, fullback and flexed out in the slot. With the Cowboys’ commitment to a fullback in Jason Garrett’s tenure, could Traylor fill a swiss-army knife role?
He only caught a grand total of 17 catches in his five year career with the Badgers; that alone shows what they thought of his abilities as a blocker. At 6-foot-3 and 247 pounds, he gives weight to both Swaim and Hanna but can leverage his height to get under the pads of linebackers and defensive linemen to move them out of position.
Since Jason Witten’s emergence, the Cowboys have put a priority on their other tight end being a blocker. Blocking is what Martellus Bennett succeeded in during his years with the team. It’s what saw Hanna get more reps that Escobar even though the latter is a second-round pick. When the Giants come to town September 11 with Jason Pierre-Paul and Olivier Vernon on the ends, the Cowboys will revert back to the blockers they know can protect Tony Romo and open up holes for Ezekiel Elliot. Because of that, Austin Traylor not only has a fighting chance at being on the 53-man roster, but on the 46-man game day roster; and the Cowboys might just ride that Traylor all the way to the end zone.
Tight end Rico Gathers is listed at 6-foot-6, 273 pounds. He averaged 11 points a game his senior season at Baylor as a basketball forward while averaging close to 26 minutes a game. After finishing his career, he decided to pick up the game of football, the first time he stepped on a field since he was in eighth grade. 24 teams showed up at his pro day to see his natural athleticism. There, he ran a 40 of 4.75 seconds, which would’ve made him the seventh best score amongst tight ends at the combine. The Cowboys took a flyer on him by drafting him in the sixth round hoping to tap into his abilities and development him into the weapon of the future.
Yet when it’s all said and done, he might not make this team.
Why? The Cowboys may have hitched their wagon to Austin Traylor.
Back in May, the Cowboys worked out a handful of tryout players following the draft; one of those players was Traylor. The undrafted rookie from Wisconsin signed shortly after his workout; at the time, it seemed as if Traylor was brought in to just fill the final spot on the 90 man roster. How could he be expected to contribute to a team boasting the ageless Jason Witten, returning veterans James Hanna and Gavin Escobar and emerging young players in Geoff Swaim and Rico Gathers?
Call it a stroke of luck, or even divine fate, but Traylor found a way to get reps. Even with Escobar returning earlier than expected he has been limited and Hanna, on the flip side, remains on PUP. With Hanna being the best blocker of the bunch, an immediate need opened up that hasn’t been able to be filled by either Swaim or Gathers. Swaim has been a “get in the way” type of blocker; someone who gets in front of his man but doesn’t have the ability to steer him. That’s a necessity in the Dallas scheme. Gathers is still trying to learn the difference between a down block and an elbow screen.
With a team committed to running the football, the tight ends must be committed to blocking, and that’s what Traylor can do.
At Wisconsin, he was used primarily for that purpose; he played at several spots on the field including in-line, fullback and flexed out in the slot. With the Cowboys’ commitment to a fullback in Jason Garrett’s tenure, could Traylor fill a swiss-army knife role?
He only caught a grand total of 17 catches in his five year career with the Badgers; that alone shows what they thought of his abilities as a blocker. At 6-foot-3 and 247 pounds, he gives weight to both Swaim and Hanna but can leverage his height to get under the pads of linebackers and defensive linemen to move them out of position.
Since Jason Witten’s emergence, the Cowboys have put a priority on their other tight end being a blocker. Blocking is what Martellus Bennett succeeded in during his years with the team. It’s what saw Hanna get more reps that Escobar even though the latter is a second-round pick. When the Giants come to town September 11 with Jason Pierre-Paul and Olivier Vernon on the ends, the Cowboys will revert back to the blockers they know can protect Tony Romo and open up holes for Ezekiel Elliot. Because of that, Austin Traylor not only has a fighting chance at being on the 53-man roster, but on the 46-man game day roster; and the Cowboys might just ride that Traylor all the way to the end zone.
