The Athletic: Is there always a fight for you to stay on the 53-man roster?
Gathers: For me, I just simply don’t worry about it, I just come in and show up and do my job. As long as I wake up, I got a job; that’s the only thing that matters to me. With that mindset, it makes it easier for me to come out here and do my job, and at the end of the day, if they tell me they want to part ways, then you’ve just got to accept it. I feel like I do exactly what I need to do for this team for my growth as a tight end.
The Athletic: Is the game becoming a little more familiar to you now? You really haven’t played since middle school before taking up the game again.
Gathers: When you’ve been doing something for three years, just hearing different terminology and stuff, and then you know you finally get one year to just go out there and learn while playing, you come back in and set your plan for the offseason and really attack the mental side of it. Even with a new offensive coordinator (Moore), some of the stuff stays the same and some of it has changed. As long as you have your principles, you can go out and execute.
The Athletic: How do you deal with the possibility the team might cut you?
Gathers: It’s all about chemistry, they want to put a team full of guys who match well together. At the end of the day, (front office) makes the ultimate decision. All you can do is move on and keep pushing. I just come in and execute whatever they ask of me to execute. Just don’t even worry about the competition part. It’s all about accountability at this point.
