FRISCO, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys will be able to continue the development of tight end Rico Gathers with him agreeing to join the practice squad.

Gathers was one of the Cowboys’ sixth-round picks and was among their final cuts on Saturday. Gathers caught one pass in limited preseason work as he moves away from playing power forward in basketball to tight end in football.

Gathers played four years of basketball at Baylor and averaged 11.2 points and 9 rebounds a game as a senior. As a junior, he was an All-Big 12 first-team selection after averaging 11.6 points, 11.6 rebound in 34 starts.

Before joining the Cowboys, he had not played football since eighth grade.

“He’s improved dramatically and we anticipated that,” coach Jason Garrett said before the final preseason game against the Houston Texans. “Coming from where he’s come from, not playing football since he was in junior high, we expected the learning curve to be steep for him but we expected him to grow quickly because of his athletic ability and the kind of guy we thought he was coming in. And he’s demonstrated that he wants to learn. There are some things that we take for granted for players at this level that he has to go back and learn and understand, do a good job in his stance, coming out of a stance, finishing plays, his body posture during a play, a lot of the basic fundamental things that guys grow up learning. We had to teach him those things. But he’s a willing learner. He works hard at it and he’s certainly very athletic and he picks things up quickly.”

The Cowboys have also added tight end Austin Traylor, center/guard Jake Brendel, wide receiver Andy Jones, defensive end Ryan Russell, linebacker Deon King and wide receiver Vince Mayle to their practice squad. They were all among the Cowboys’ final cuts and cleared waivers Sunday. Tackle Bryan Witzmann was claimed by the Kansas City Chiefs.