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Sorting through the Cowboys’ tight end options
By Bob Sturm Aug 22, 2018
I think the best way to start this conversation is to remind people that some of the most ridiculous heated debates that ever exist in the NFL world happen in the last few weeks of August, when word begins to circulate that our collective “pet cats” won’t make the team. Especially if the guy is a local product and has put together an insane Youtube highlight reel of various feats of strength and skill.
From there, the front office is called names, imaginations run wild, fanbases become hysterical that the player “will sign with the Patriots and make them pay”, and the discourse on Twitter gets pretty heated.
The reminder at the top is that 95% of these debates never hold the slightest bit of significance once the season arrives. Every year or two, there is a camp darling that pops in the second half of exhibition games and the fans fall in love with him. Then, invariably, he gets cut and we are left to remember those moments when he made us dream.
Now that this reminder is out of the way, let’s discuss the hottest topic in Cowboys land this week: The future of the team’s tight end position and the relative merits of Rico Gathers in that mix.
First, one of the most prolific tight ends in the history of the sport retired from this franchise in April and now holds a prominent spot on television. From 2003-2017, Jason Witten had the position nailed down and you never were concerned about the group. The Cowboys were always going to have Witten and then probably a young second-round pick behind him trying to prove himself, too.
You can roll your eyes when considering the Cowboys took all of those second-rounders – Anthony Fasano, Martellus Bennett, Gavin Escobar – and now that they actually need one of them to be the starter, they are all gone. Of all the times to not have a second-rounder in reserve, it is now. Oh, where are you, 27-year old Gavin Escobar? (Miami, currently).
The Cowboys have four tight ends and to be honest, they could comfortably keep them all. They carried four tight ends in both 2013 and in 2015, so all of this consternation might be unnecessary. That said, it seems that they want to go pretty heavy at wide receiver this year, and therefore I suspect the magic number for the tight ends on the final 53 will be three.
The pecking order is pretty clear. Geoff Swaim is a lock. He is entering Year 4 and in each of his first three seasons, the Cowboys have found a role for him. Not only that, it has continued to grow. The two players who ranked ahead of him on last year’s depth chart are gone, so you can believe that even though he would not be a great fantasy play, the Cowboys plan on him playing a couple hundred snaps of real football and a couple hundred more on special teams.
The former seventh-round Longhorn (which the Cowboys paid a sixth-rounder to get) is certainly not much of a concern for defenses when running routes but he plays a very important role. We have talked about this, but I think we need to make sure this is not lost in the discussions about highlight catches and such: The Cowboys are going “all-in” that they can line up Zeke behind this offensive line and control games. If I run a defense facing this crew, I am concerned, but I am going to stay in my base defense and bring down my strong safety on first-and-10. Now I have an eight-man box and while your offensive line is nice, your five are not blocking my eight. This is where Jason Witten and even James Hanna have come in. Those tight ends are not expected to block Fletcher Cox, but they had sure better be able to handle the edges, linebackers or safeties at the 2nd level. Swaim is not the best blocking tight end in the world, but he certainly is in this Cowboys room.
Additionally, and this is very important, too – tight ends play a very large part of special teams. If you have any depth TE’s, they must be on coverage units with the backup linebackers and safeties. That is the only way to make the game-day roster work. You can’t carry four tight ends unless they are offering added value because nobody runs a four-tight-end formation. Swaim is a regular member of kick return, punt return, and punt cover teams and does a decent job at it because he is a solid athlete who is willing and able to account for those responsibilities.
Dalton Schultz is a lock, too. You don’t draft a 22-year old in the fourth round who has everything you are looking for in a TE to cut him loose a few months later. We have no idea what he will develop into ultimately, but I certainly liked what the film showed at Stanford, and they have him on a minimum contract through 2021. So even if this is largely a redshirt year for young Dalton, you had best believe that he isn’t going anywhere. It probably won’t be a redshirt year, by the way. The team has used him plenty in the early going, and while he needs more time in an NFL strength program and will probably be brought along slowly, I still expect him to flash. One dead giveaway is that the Cowboys have him playing special teams in preseason games at a rate higher than anyone on the offensive side of the ball (although I don’t know that he is “running with the 1’s” on coverage teams yet).
So you aren’t cutting Swaim, the returning veteran — and you aren’t cutting your fourth-round pick. So, now the showdown is between two guys who share a few similarities.
Let’s discuss Baylor’s Rico Gathers vs Oklahoma State’s Blake Jarwin.
[HR][/HR]Gathers does incredible things that are easily tweet-able and that gives him the distinct advantage in this battle. Let’s look at his greatest hits:
Kellen Moore hit him on the corner route in the Hall of Fame game last Year. Gorgeous on all sorts of levels, but the DB having no idea what to do with him is the best.
Here is Cooper Rush seeing Gathers in man coverage against a linebacker and having a laugh as Gathers powers by him and just makes another downfield vertical route touchdown look like child’s play.
Finally, here he runs the first-and-10 favorite, the play-action bootleg to the TE in the flat from Jameill Showers. He somehow keeps his balance through a full cartwheel and continues down the field in the final preseason game of 2017. He disappeared after this with a really long and mysterious concussion issue that carried on for what seemed like the entirety of 2017.
Then, on Saturday night, when he was all but forgotten, we got a brief look into the Rico experience. Some bad, some spectacular.
First, the rough part. See below – with 3 videos that tell a story:
Video #1: Mike White directing Rico on where to line up prior to the play. This is circumstantial video, for sure, but of all the guys breaking the huddle, if you had to vote which one wasn’t positive what the play was, you might say it is #80.
Video #2: A moment later, the play. He quite clearly runs the wrong route and plows right into Dalton Schultz. The design is a rub route where Schultz is to scrape off Gathers’ man, but Rico takes either a poor angle or perhaps thinks he is the one setting the rub. Dalton’s body language is one thing, but sources later confirmed it as well. #80 did not know his role on this play.
Video #3 shows the post-play dynamic as Gathers explains what he thought the play was supposed to be and Schultz corrected him (again, I am editorializing, but sources confirmed what happened pretty clearly). A moment after this video ended, he was subbed out and caught an earful from his positional coach on the sideline, Doug Nussmeier.
So, the guy who has a bit of a reputation of not knowing the plays gave you an example on one of his early snaps of how that reputation was built. You might say that it is only one snap, what is the big deal. In the NFL, one snap is a big deal. If you repeat that same problem, you get a reputation. And once that happens, you are fighting uphill.
Then, he shows you why he might still be worth the trouble…
You just can’t coach certain things – and this play is one of them. Mike White hit him with a “make a play” throw and Gathers just went right over his man, LB #47-Chris Worley. Again, he makes these plays look so easy.
Here is the other angle. I don’t think I would try that throw again, but if there was any question about his basketball skills having an application in the NFL, well, at least against that LB, they translated pretty well.
Rico is a polarizing figure because his range of possibilities extends somewhere between Antonio Gates and… nothing. He is one of the biggest projects in league history. There have certainly been players who entered the NFL from some odd, circuitous routes but facing NFL defenders after not playing the game since middle school is a massive ask of anyone.
There were times when I was convinced it could work. In fact, I wrote this around a year ago.
This is where Rico Gathers can offer something that most tight ends cannot, and will remind us of a younger Jason Witten and the reason the Cowboys thought that Martellus Bennett (and Anthony Fasano and Gavin Escobar) was worth a 2nd-round pick. Remember, 12 personnel says to the defense that runs are likely and that you better have the proper personnel on the field. In fact, you are tempted to bring on linebackers because the Cowboys in 12 will have as many as 7 run blockers on the field, so if you counter with nickel, you are outmanned up front.
This is also why Rico Gathers can get better and better as he learns to run block. As many have mentioned, he doesn’t ever have to be great at this task (Jimmy Graham never learned), but the better he is at it, the easier his life gets. If he can run block – even a little, then you force the defense to respect the Cowboys offense as Dak Prescott would simply see how his tight ends are being defended in presnap and counter with audibles. If Witten and Gathers have “bigs” (LBs) on them, they run verticals. If Witten and Gathers have “littles” on them (DBs), then you audible into a run and go right at them.
As you can see, I had bought in. I wasn’t done, either:
This is either the start of something big, or we can look back at August 2017 as the time we lost our minds about a project basketball player who showed his ability for one shining moment. But, man, he is looking like a real piece to have on the chess board moving forward.
So what happened since then that has me assuming he will probably not make this roster barring something unforeseen (like eight catches for 120 and two touchdowns on Sunday)?
[HR][/HR]In short, the Cowboys have lost patience. Gathers’ second training camp in 2017 came with a “here we go” mentality, whereas his third training camp (2018) carries the sense that “this may never happen.” Yes, there was a concussion along with jaw/neck issues. But, there was also a lack of real progress in the important questions of taking a step forward in simple “football IQ” issues. We undervalue this because it is not an athletic trait, but there are plenty of ingrained instincts in this sport that you subconsciously learn in ninth or tenth grade. He missed those lessons. He has those senses when playing basketball, but just understanding what needs to happen in the five seconds from snap to whistle is often lost on him and project players like him. Jason Garrett has repeatedly said, “he just needs to play football” to learn those things. Trouble is, this isn’t a sport with minor leagues. The only place he can play is in a live game, yet nobody trusts him in a live game. And round and round we go.
Here it is from the owner, himself. In Year 3, this is not complimentary:
Ok, fine. But, if Rico could merely cover kicks and punts well, I am certain they would stay with the project. And that is why two things have taken me from bullish to bearish on Gathers in 12 months.
And that is the big one. Talk to any scout and they will tell you that a good way to see how a team is building its roster is to spy the special teams players. The starters are fine and even the veteran special teams players don’t have to go hard. But all rookies, reserves, and fringe guys earn special-teams responsibilities in camp and the report card is their duty in the game. The earlier in the game they take part in punt or kick duty, the better standing they have with the special teams coach.
Here are the special teams snaps for the four tight ends through two games:
Again, keep in mind that Swaim is already on the squad. They know what he can do, so he gets a few snaps early in these games and leaves. My concern is that in three training camps with the Cowboys, Gathers is on two “mop up” punt-return teams late in games. That is it. Not a great sign.
[HR][/HR]Now, onto the unheralded Blake Jarwin. The Oklahoma State Cowboy was an undrafted free agent in 2017 and a guy that the Philadelphia Eagles tried to sign away last October, forcing the Cowboys to match the offer and add him to their own 53-man roster.
They like him a lot and think he offers the best of both worlds – he is a trusted special-teams contributor and a potential vertical threat. Not the vertical threat that Gathers might be on his best highlight, but he was able to accomplish quite a bit after he walked on at Oklahoma State.
Let’s look:
Here he is on a back-shoulder fade with ball skills and nice hands against West Virginia.
You can also see him run down the seam and away from defensive backs against Kansas State after a blown zone coverage with two verticals running right at a safety.
Then to another spot of great utility, which will be pass protect-chip, then run out to the flat, make a guy miss in space and get to the sticks against TCU.
Most importantly, he has “run with the 1’s” on both punt teams which is what you expect a backup tight end will handle on Sundays starting against Carolina in Week 1.
Here are some interesting numbers from the four players according to DraftMockable.com – since Gathers didn’t go to the combine, we used his pro-day numbers:
There is no doubt Gathers can do some amazing things – including rebound the basketball better than any Baylor Bear ever, but you might be interested to see that he would finish in fourth place in a 40-yard dash and fourth in a broad jump competition amongst the four tight ends (according to the available testing numbers).
I am not sure which direction the Cowboys will ultimately go toward, as it appears that Saturday night’s catch is giving the front office some pause in taking Jarwin over Gathers. They might keep all four, because they are pretty sure they will lose Gathers if he is not on the 53-man roster.
It is an interesting battle between four players who have almost no NFL experience or statistics to speak of. Geoff Swaim has all the games and all of the stats among the group. And he has neither 10 catches or 100 yards in his career.
This will be a vital spot for the Cowboys. It also could be where they spend their 1st round pick in 2019 if this is a disaster. Whether running the ball or passing it, they need their tight ends to produce. They are counting on it, and if you watched Saturday night, you saw that they opened with multiple tight ends on the #1 offense on eight plays on the first two drives (out of thirteen snaps). It is how this offense works.
Do they have the right pieces? That remains to be seen. Will they bet on upside or dependability? Role versatility or one spectacular and singular purpose?
That question is especially poignant as they make their final choices of the preseason.
By Bob Sturm Aug 22, 2018
I think the best way to start this conversation is to remind people that some of the most ridiculous heated debates that ever exist in the NFL world happen in the last few weeks of August, when word begins to circulate that our collective “pet cats” won’t make the team. Especially if the guy is a local product and has put together an insane Youtube highlight reel of various feats of strength and skill.
From there, the front office is called names, imaginations run wild, fanbases become hysterical that the player “will sign with the Patriots and make them pay”, and the discourse on Twitter gets pretty heated.
The reminder at the top is that 95% of these debates never hold the slightest bit of significance once the season arrives. Every year or two, there is a camp darling that pops in the second half of exhibition games and the fans fall in love with him. Then, invariably, he gets cut and we are left to remember those moments when he made us dream.
Now that this reminder is out of the way, let’s discuss the hottest topic in Cowboys land this week: The future of the team’s tight end position and the relative merits of Rico Gathers in that mix.
First, one of the most prolific tight ends in the history of the sport retired from this franchise in April and now holds a prominent spot on television. From 2003-2017, Jason Witten had the position nailed down and you never were concerned about the group. The Cowboys were always going to have Witten and then probably a young second-round pick behind him trying to prove himself, too.
You can roll your eyes when considering the Cowboys took all of those second-rounders – Anthony Fasano, Martellus Bennett, Gavin Escobar – and now that they actually need one of them to be the starter, they are all gone. Of all the times to not have a second-rounder in reserve, it is now. Oh, where are you, 27-year old Gavin Escobar? (Miami, currently).
The Cowboys have four tight ends and to be honest, they could comfortably keep them all. They carried four tight ends in both 2013 and in 2015, so all of this consternation might be unnecessary. That said, it seems that they want to go pretty heavy at wide receiver this year, and therefore I suspect the magic number for the tight ends on the final 53 will be three.
The pecking order is pretty clear. Geoff Swaim is a lock. He is entering Year 4 and in each of his first three seasons, the Cowboys have found a role for him. Not only that, it has continued to grow. The two players who ranked ahead of him on last year’s depth chart are gone, so you can believe that even though he would not be a great fantasy play, the Cowboys plan on him playing a couple hundred snaps of real football and a couple hundred more on special teams.
The former seventh-round Longhorn (which the Cowboys paid a sixth-rounder to get) is certainly not much of a concern for defenses when running routes but he plays a very important role. We have talked about this, but I think we need to make sure this is not lost in the discussions about highlight catches and such: The Cowboys are going “all-in” that they can line up Zeke behind this offensive line and control games. If I run a defense facing this crew, I am concerned, but I am going to stay in my base defense and bring down my strong safety on first-and-10. Now I have an eight-man box and while your offensive line is nice, your five are not blocking my eight. This is where Jason Witten and even James Hanna have come in. Those tight ends are not expected to block Fletcher Cox, but they had sure better be able to handle the edges, linebackers or safeties at the 2nd level. Swaim is not the best blocking tight end in the world, but he certainly is in this Cowboys room.
Additionally, and this is very important, too – tight ends play a very large part of special teams. If you have any depth TE’s, they must be on coverage units with the backup linebackers and safeties. That is the only way to make the game-day roster work. You can’t carry four tight ends unless they are offering added value because nobody runs a four-tight-end formation. Swaim is a regular member of kick return, punt return, and punt cover teams and does a decent job at it because he is a solid athlete who is willing and able to account for those responsibilities.
Dalton Schultz is a lock, too. You don’t draft a 22-year old in the fourth round who has everything you are looking for in a TE to cut him loose a few months later. We have no idea what he will develop into ultimately, but I certainly liked what the film showed at Stanford, and they have him on a minimum contract through 2021. So even if this is largely a redshirt year for young Dalton, you had best believe that he isn’t going anywhere. It probably won’t be a redshirt year, by the way. The team has used him plenty in the early going, and while he needs more time in an NFL strength program and will probably be brought along slowly, I still expect him to flash. One dead giveaway is that the Cowboys have him playing special teams in preseason games at a rate higher than anyone on the offensive side of the ball (although I don’t know that he is “running with the 1’s” on coverage teams yet).
So you aren’t cutting Swaim, the returning veteran — and you aren’t cutting your fourth-round pick. So, now the showdown is between two guys who share a few similarities.
Let’s discuss Baylor’s Rico Gathers vs Oklahoma State’s Blake Jarwin.
[HR][/HR]Gathers does incredible things that are easily tweet-able and that gives him the distinct advantage in this battle. Let’s look at his greatest hits:
Kellen Moore hit him on the corner route in the Hall of Fame game last Year. Gorgeous on all sorts of levels, but the DB having no idea what to do with him is the best.
Here is Cooper Rush seeing Gathers in man coverage against a linebacker and having a laugh as Gathers powers by him and just makes another downfield vertical route touchdown look like child’s play.
Finally, here he runs the first-and-10 favorite, the play-action bootleg to the TE in the flat from Jameill Showers. He somehow keeps his balance through a full cartwheel and continues down the field in the final preseason game of 2017. He disappeared after this with a really long and mysterious concussion issue that carried on for what seemed like the entirety of 2017.
Then, on Saturday night, when he was all but forgotten, we got a brief look into the Rico experience. Some bad, some spectacular.
First, the rough part. See below – with 3 videos that tell a story:
Video #1: Mike White directing Rico on where to line up prior to the play. This is circumstantial video, for sure, but of all the guys breaking the huddle, if you had to vote which one wasn’t positive what the play was, you might say it is #80.
Video #2: A moment later, the play. He quite clearly runs the wrong route and plows right into Dalton Schultz. The design is a rub route where Schultz is to scrape off Gathers’ man, but Rico takes either a poor angle or perhaps thinks he is the one setting the rub. Dalton’s body language is one thing, but sources later confirmed it as well. #80 did not know his role on this play.
Video #3 shows the post-play dynamic as Gathers explains what he thought the play was supposed to be and Schultz corrected him (again, I am editorializing, but sources confirmed what happened pretty clearly). A moment after this video ended, he was subbed out and caught an earful from his positional coach on the sideline, Doug Nussmeier.
So, the guy who has a bit of a reputation of not knowing the plays gave you an example on one of his early snaps of how that reputation was built. You might say that it is only one snap, what is the big deal. In the NFL, one snap is a big deal. If you repeat that same problem, you get a reputation. And once that happens, you are fighting uphill.
Then, he shows you why he might still be worth the trouble…
You just can’t coach certain things – and this play is one of them. Mike White hit him with a “make a play” throw and Gathers just went right over his man, LB #47-Chris Worley. Again, he makes these plays look so easy.
Here is the other angle. I don’t think I would try that throw again, but if there was any question about his basketball skills having an application in the NFL, well, at least against that LB, they translated pretty well.
Rico is a polarizing figure because his range of possibilities extends somewhere between Antonio Gates and… nothing. He is one of the biggest projects in league history. There have certainly been players who entered the NFL from some odd, circuitous routes but facing NFL defenders after not playing the game since middle school is a massive ask of anyone.
There were times when I was convinced it could work. In fact, I wrote this around a year ago.
This is where Rico Gathers can offer something that most tight ends cannot, and will remind us of a younger Jason Witten and the reason the Cowboys thought that Martellus Bennett (and Anthony Fasano and Gavin Escobar) was worth a 2nd-round pick. Remember, 12 personnel says to the defense that runs are likely and that you better have the proper personnel on the field. In fact, you are tempted to bring on linebackers because the Cowboys in 12 will have as many as 7 run blockers on the field, so if you counter with nickel, you are outmanned up front.
This is also why Rico Gathers can get better and better as he learns to run block. As many have mentioned, he doesn’t ever have to be great at this task (Jimmy Graham never learned), but the better he is at it, the easier his life gets. If he can run block – even a little, then you force the defense to respect the Cowboys offense as Dak Prescott would simply see how his tight ends are being defended in presnap and counter with audibles. If Witten and Gathers have “bigs” (LBs) on them, they run verticals. If Witten and Gathers have “littles” on them (DBs), then you audible into a run and go right at them.
As you can see, I had bought in. I wasn’t done, either:
This is either the start of something big, or we can look back at August 2017 as the time we lost our minds about a project basketball player who showed his ability for one shining moment. But, man, he is looking like a real piece to have on the chess board moving forward.
So what happened since then that has me assuming he will probably not make this roster barring something unforeseen (like eight catches for 120 and two touchdowns on Sunday)?
[HR][/HR]In short, the Cowboys have lost patience. Gathers’ second training camp in 2017 came with a “here we go” mentality, whereas his third training camp (2018) carries the sense that “this may never happen.” Yes, there was a concussion along with jaw/neck issues. But, there was also a lack of real progress in the important questions of taking a step forward in simple “football IQ” issues. We undervalue this because it is not an athletic trait, but there are plenty of ingrained instincts in this sport that you subconsciously learn in ninth or tenth grade. He missed those lessons. He has those senses when playing basketball, but just understanding what needs to happen in the five seconds from snap to whistle is often lost on him and project players like him. Jason Garrett has repeatedly said, “he just needs to play football” to learn those things. Trouble is, this isn’t a sport with minor leagues. The only place he can play is in a live game, yet nobody trusts him in a live game. And round and round we go.
Here it is from the owner, himself. In Year 3, this is not complimentary:
Ok, fine. But, if Rico could merely cover kicks and punts well, I am certain they would stay with the project. And that is why two things have taken me from bullish to bearish on Gathers in 12 months.
- Knowing they had Gathers, the Cowboys drafted Schultz, telling us they know they need their tight end of the future.
- Knowing he needs to add value to make the team, it appears he still isn’t a candidate for special teams.
And that is the big one. Talk to any scout and they will tell you that a good way to see how a team is building its roster is to spy the special teams players. The starters are fine and even the veteran special teams players don’t have to go hard. But all rookies, reserves, and fringe guys earn special-teams responsibilities in camp and the report card is their duty in the game. The earlier in the game they take part in punt or kick duty, the better standing they have with the special teams coach.
Here are the special teams snaps for the four tight ends through two games:
| Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R Gathers | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| B Jarwin | 9 | 10 | 19 |
| D Schultz | 14 | 10 | 24 |
| G Swaim | 3 | 7 | 10 |
Again, keep in mind that Swaim is already on the squad. They know what he can do, so he gets a few snaps early in these games and leaves. My concern is that in three training camps with the Cowboys, Gathers is on two “mop up” punt-return teams late in games. That is it. Not a great sign.
[HR][/HR]Now, onto the unheralded Blake Jarwin. The Oklahoma State Cowboy was an undrafted free agent in 2017 and a guy that the Philadelphia Eagles tried to sign away last October, forcing the Cowboys to match the offer and add him to their own 53-man roster.
They like him a lot and think he offers the best of both worlds – he is a trusted special-teams contributor and a potential vertical threat. Not the vertical threat that Gathers might be on his best highlight, but he was able to accomplish quite a bit after he walked on at Oklahoma State.
Let’s look:
Here he is on a back-shoulder fade with ball skills and nice hands against West Virginia.
You can also see him run down the seam and away from defensive backs against Kansas State after a blown zone coverage with two verticals running right at a safety.
Then to another spot of great utility, which will be pass protect-chip, then run out to the flat, make a guy miss in space and get to the sticks against TCU.
Most importantly, he has “run with the 1’s” on both punt teams which is what you expect a backup tight end will handle on Sundays starting against Carolina in Week 1.
Here are some interesting numbers from the four players according to DraftMockable.com – since Gathers didn’t go to the combine, we used his pro-day numbers:
| Age | Height | Weight | 10 yd – 40 yd | Broad Jump | Vertical | Bench Press | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gathers | 24.6 | 6’6 | 285 | 1.71 – 4.79 | 115″ | NA | NA |
| Jarwin | 24.1 | 6’5 | 260 | 1.58 – 4.73 | 121″ | 34.5″ | 21 |
| Schultz | 22 | 6’5 | 255 | 1.64 – 4.75 | 120″ | 32″ | 15 |
| Swaim | 24.9 | 6’4 | 260 | 1.66 – 4.71 | 124″ | 35.5″ | NA |
There is no doubt Gathers can do some amazing things – including rebound the basketball better than any Baylor Bear ever, but you might be interested to see that he would finish in fourth place in a 40-yard dash and fourth in a broad jump competition amongst the four tight ends (according to the available testing numbers).
I am not sure which direction the Cowboys will ultimately go toward, as it appears that Saturday night’s catch is giving the front office some pause in taking Jarwin over Gathers. They might keep all four, because they are pretty sure they will lose Gathers if he is not on the 53-man roster.
It is an interesting battle between four players who have almost no NFL experience or statistics to speak of. Geoff Swaim has all the games and all of the stats among the group. And he has neither 10 catches or 100 yards in his career.
This will be a vital spot for the Cowboys. It also could be where they spend their 1st round pick in 2019 if this is a disaster. Whether running the ball or passing it, they need their tight ends to produce. They are counting on it, and if you watched Saturday night, you saw that they opened with multiple tight ends on the #1 offense on eight plays on the first two drives (out of thirteen snaps). It is how this offense works.
Do they have the right pieces? That remains to be seen. Will they bet on upside or dependability? Role versatility or one spectacular and singular purpose?
That question is especially poignant as they make their final choices of the preseason.
