Archer: Cowboys coaches can't be 'Houdini' when it comes to Rico Gathers

Cotton

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Cowboys coaches can't be 'Houdini' when it comes to Rico Gathers
11:18 PM ET
Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer

IRVING, Texas -- Mike Pope is entering his 34th year as an assistant coach in the NFL and his third with the Dallas Cowboys. Mike Loney is entering his 14th year as an assistant coach in the NFL and second with the Cowboys.

Together they will handle the tight end responsibilities.

While they know what they have in Jason Witten, James Hanna, Gavin Escobar and Geoff Swaim, they have no idea what they have in Rico Gathers.

Last weekend’s rookie minicamp was Gathers’ first football practice since the eighth grade.

“Coach Loney and I, it doesn’t say Houdini on our doors,” Pope said. “It says Coach. We can’t just make a guy, turn over, get up tomorrow and be ready to go. He’s going to be a while.”

The Cowboys selected Gathers in the sixth round knowing it would take time to turn the Baylor forward into a tight end.

Whenever a basketball player is looked at as a tight end the inevitable comparisons are to NFL success stories, such as Tony Gonzalez, who excelled in basketball and football at California before catching the most passes in NFL history by a tight end. Then, of course, comes Antonio Gates of the San Diego Chargers and Jimmy Graham of the Seattle Seahawks.

Gates at least played football through high school and had visions of playing both sports at Michigan State. Graham played a year at Miami after his basketball eligibility expired.

“He had some semblance but he was still raw when you go back and look at his college tape, which we did when we were evaluating it,” Pope said of Graham. “You wouldn’t say that you could bet this guy is an automatic winning hand. He got better as he got to New Orleans and got to do these things over and over and over again.”

The challenge of coaching Gathers is complicated because he does not have the base knowledge of the game that college players pick up over the years. What might seem elementary to some is foreign to Gathers, but the Cowboys’ approach with Gathers can’t be too much different than the other tight ends.

“As a general comment, you would say, ‘All of these guys need to get their fundamentals down,’ and that starts with stances and get-off and all the basic things that a player at any position needs to work on,” coach Jason Garrett said. “So we’re focused on all that stuff. You got to start from there with each of these players. But they do have to do other things. You can’t just say, ‘OK, it’s all about the stance. We’re not worrying about anything else.’ It’s the stance, it’s the release and some of the other things we’re asking you to do. But you do have to be cognizance of where they are, particularly in his case, where he is and where he’s been and help him.”

There is a good thing about coaching Gathers right now: He has no bad habits.

“He doesn’t have any habits,” Pope said. “That’s a good way to put it.”

But Pope sees the athleticism to work with, even as Gathers learns.

“Well, you just can’t throw him in there with the guys who do know what to do because his job is going to always, especially as a tight end, be related to somebody else," Pope said. "A receiver, if he doesn’t get proper depth, he screws up the timing. If he does the wrong way on an out breaking route, it messes up the receiver on top of him, so it looks ratty.

“He can’t play at full speed until he’s absolutely sure what he’s doing, but I think we’ll see that jump as we go forward.”
 

Stars

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He's an interesting project I guess. Obviously don't expect anything from him this year. As stated in the article, routes are going to be his toughest challenge. Even something that looks simple for a TE like a seam route might be hard for him. Depth of route, body position, zone awareness, blitz awareness, safety position, linebacker depth...all on just one ostensibly straight route.
 

Cowboysrock55

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I just hope the Cowboys are ready to actually devote the time to this project. This is something you do with the long term payoff in mind. Unfortunately I fear the Cowboys will cut someone like this before the season starts because he isn't ready to contribute on the field. If that's the thought process, then don't draft the guy in the first place. You need to be ready to basically waste a roster spot on this guy bringing him along.
 

data

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injustice in this world. Drop a sport back in the 8th grade, fail at the stuff you tried and got drafted by one of the premier franchises.
 

VA Cowboy

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No need to draft completely raw projects. I don't care if it's the 6th round and we have 4 picks. There's actual football players with potential and upside available at that time like Jalen Mills, Charone Peake, Vadal Alexander, Kenny Lawler, Jayron Kearse, Scooby Wright, etc.... Instead we take a basketball player.

Always futily trying to outsmart everyone and most times it just makes us look dumb.
 

BipolarFuk

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No need to draft completely raw projects. I don't care if it's the 6th round and we have 4 picks. There's actual football players with potential and upside available at that time like Jalen Mills, Charone Peake, Vadal Alexander, Kenny Lawler, Jayron Kearse, Scooby Wright, etc.... Instead we take a basketball player.

Always futily trying to outsmart everyone and most times it just makes us look dumb.
He made his fortune taking risks goddamnit!!
 

Cowboysrock55

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No need to draft completely raw projects. I don't care if it's the 6th round and we have 4 picks. There's actual football players with potential and upside available at that time like Jalen Mills, Charone Peake, Vadal Alexander, Kenny Lawler, Jayron Kearse, Scooby Wright, etc.... Instead we take a basketball player.

Always futily trying to outsmart everyone and most times it just makes us look dumb.
Not really trying to outsmart people. This is a path many teams have taken. There are only so many big athletic people in this world. My problem is we lack the dedication to follow through on the investment.
 

boozeman

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Not really trying to outsmart people. This is a path many teams have taken. There are only so many big athletic people in this world. My problem is we lack the dedication to follow through on the investment.
I would get it if we gave up on prospects and then someone else picked them up and made something of them. That isn't that often either.
 

dallen

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I would get it if we gave up on prospects and then someone else picked them up and made something of them. That isn't that often either.
True, but I don't hate Gathers as much as some of our past picks. Not in love with it, but it could be worse. There is a small history of NCAA power forwards making the switch to TE. At least we didn't draft another baseball player to play QB. I've come to expect one pick per draft make little sense. That this one came with our last pick is an improvement.
 

Angrymesscan

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True, but I don't hate Gathers as much as some of our past picks. Not in love with it, but it could be worse. There is a small history of NCAA power forwards making the switch to TE. At least we didn't draft another baseball player to play QB. I've come to expect one pick per draft make little sense. That this one came with our last pick is an improvement.
Actually the last 2 didn't make much sense...
I love the guy, but another RB after Zeke... Doesn't make much sense.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Actually the last 2 didn't make much sense...
I love the guy, but another RB after Zeke... Doesn't make much sense.
If he is a good RB who gives a shit? You're going to use more then one guy. Plus RBs get hurt all the time. Ultimately maybe you can save some cap space by not having McFadden, Morris or Dunbar getting paid.

In the sixth round I just want good players regardless of position.
 

townsend

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If he is a good RB who gives a shit? You're going to use more then one guy. Plus RBs get hurt all the time. Ultimately maybe you can save some cap space by not having McFadden, Morris or Dunbar getting paid.

In the sixth round I just want good players regardless of position.
Honestly I think we'd be dumb to keep Dunbar on this roster. He's not a running back, and he's not good enough at the other stuff he does to justify taking up a spot instead of someone who can take handoffs and stay healthy.
 

Genghis Khan

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Actually the last 2 didn't make much sense...
I love the guy, but another RB after Zeke... Doesn't make much sense.
Sure it does. After this season, McFadden's contract will be up and he'll be gone. After this season or next, Morris will be gone (i can't remember if his contract was 1 or 2 years).

So after a year or at most 2, we'd be left with zeke and basically no one else. So they took a guy they like, who will be cheap for the next 4 years, and whom we can judge ahead of time and know if we'll be in the market for a backup in a year or 2. At the expense of a late 6th, that makes sense to me.

Now Rico, I don't love that pick. Hey, we took a guy in the 6th who coaches are already saying would take a Houdini act to get on the field anytime soon. Awesome. :|
 

Angrymesscan

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Sure it does. After this season, McFadden's contract will be up and he'll be gone. After this season or next, Morris will be gone (i can't remember if his contract was 1 or 2 years).

So after a year or at most 2, we'd be left with zeke and basically no one else. So they took a guy they like, who will be cheap for the next 4 years, and whom we can judge ahead of time and know if we'll be in the market for a backup in a year or 2. At the expense of a late 6th, that makes sense to me.

Now Rico, I don't love that pick. Hey, we took a guy in the 6th who coaches are already saying would take a Houdini act to get on the field anytime soon. Awesome. :|
Both guys will, if anything, end up on the practice squad, and if god forbid they show something during preseason get picked up by another team...
They're not cutting McFadden or Morris, nor is Rico moving in front of even Swain.
For injury replacements and numbers use UDFA, with the picks give me someone that actually has a shot at sticking, Charone Peake had a pretty good shot at kicking Street out of the team for example.
 

ravidubey

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Now Rico, I don't love that pick. Hey, we took a guy in the 6th who coaches are already saying would take a Houdini act to get on the field anytime soon. Awesome. :|
Witten basically coaches himself. Our fucking TE coaches couldn't develop Martellus Bennett who happens to be pretty damned good. They couldn't draw out Escobar's talent, and have basically ignored Hannah. Fasano followed Sparano out of Dallas and had a solid career.

Just watching Gather's sports science video gave me a lot more hope than I would with the crap TE's we usually draft in the 6th. This guy is a monster with huge potential.

Unfortunately our coaches are clearly not the people to get it out of him.
 

NoDak

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Witten basically coaches himself. Our fucking TE coaches couldn't develop Martellus Bennett who happens to be pretty damned good. They couldn't draw out Escobar's talent, and have basically ignored Hannah. Fasano followed Sparano out of Dallas and had a solid career.
By this, I think it's pretty safe to say you have no idea what you're talking about. Pope is a pretty well respected TEs coach, and wasn't even here when Bennett was. And certainly wasn't around when Fasano was. As for Escobar and Hanna, can't really blame him for our HC and OC not using the 2 TE set they love to talk about.
 

ravidubey

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I just hope the Cowboys are ready to actually devote the time to this project. This is something you do with the long term payoff in mind. Unfortunately I fear the Cowboys will cut someone like this before the season starts because he isn't ready to contribute on the field. If that's the thought process, then don't draft the guy in the first place. You need to be ready to basically waste a roster spot on this guy bringing him along.
This is the biggest worry.

Our coaches are worthless. This guy needs to go to the Chargers and learn from Gates.
 

Cowboysrock55

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This is the biggest worry.

Our coaches are worthless. This guy needs to go to the Chargers and learn from Gates.
I'm not worried about our coaching as much as I am that we will get to the end of preseason and he is sitting fourth or fifth on the TE depth chart and we go, well there is just no way to fit him on the roster. And maybe we can fit him on the practice squad but the problem with that is that he is available to any NFL team to pickup. Hell when you cut him, he can go to any practice squad he chooses. So if that is your intention, why use a draft pick? Unlike say a RB in the sixth who is legitimately ready to contribute today, I doubt that by the end of preseason Rico will be ready to log any significant snaps on the football field.

You better be prepared to cut someone like Swaim in order to make room on the roster for Gaithers to be inactive to start the season based purely on potential. If you won't do that, then don't make the pick in the first place.
 
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ravidubey

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As for Escobar and Hanna, can't really blame him for our HC and OC not using the 2 TE set they love to talk about.
Of course I can. Other teams have more than one TE who is successful, yet we seem utterly unable to develop them outside of Witten. Guys who've moved on to other teams and succeeded.

BTW, "coaching" means the entire coaching staff as a whole.

If Garrett makes the actual TE coaches inept and useless, then that dysfunction is exactly what I'm talking about.
 
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