Jason Witten formerly announced his retirement on Thursday to join the Monday Night Football booth. Get to know the name of Rico Gathers, who has the potential to be a Penny Stock in 2018.
The 24-year-old former basketball player from Baylor is a freak athlete who did not play a down of football in college — yet was drafted in the sixth round of the 2016 NFL Draft. Gathers stands at 6-foot-6, 273 lbs and could be the next great basketball-to-football tight end in the NFL.
Although he has yet to play a regular season game for the Cowboys, he racked up 106 yards and two touchdowns on seven receptions during last year’s preseason contests. Unfortunately, he took a brutal helmet-to-helmet collision in training camp that sidelined him for the entire regular season. But instead of the Cowboys cutting the raw, unfinished project, they held onto him for the season. That shows the confidence that they have in the former hoops star.
It looked like the Cowboys were lined up to draft Dallas Goedert (our TE1), but the rival Eagles jumped ahead of them at the last second to grab the stud tight end. Dallas didn’t select a tight end in the draft until the fourth round, where they selected an all-around tight end from Stanford, Dalton Schultz. Schultz is more of a move tight end who is known for his blocking, meaning Gathers should be the guy that Dak Prescott targets. Keep an eye on Gathers throughout training camp, as he drips in fantasy potential Someone has to step up in the absence of both Dez Bryant and Witten, who combined to have a 45.1-percent target share in 2017.
