Tag: Gavin Escobar

Former Dallas Cowboys TE Gavin Escobar dies in rock-climbing accident

Ex-Dallas Cowboys TE Gavin Escobar died in a rock-climbing accident

Gavin Escobar, who played tight end for the Dallas Cowboys from 2013-16, died Wednesday in a rock-climbing accident that saw a second fatality.

Escobar, 31, and Chelsea Walsh, 33, were found dead during an attempted rescue by the Riverside County Fire Department.

The department said firefighters tried hiking to the victims’ location but when they made it to the climbers, Escobar and Walsh had died.

They were found in a remote area near Tahquitz Rock in the San Bernardino National Forest. Officials said they were climbing a rock face.

Escobar’s mother told WFAA, “He was a great father, husband, and son. Just heartbroken now.”

Escobar went to San Diego State and was a second-round pick of the Cowboys in 2013. He played in 62 games and made 30 catches, 8 for touchdowns.

He finished his career in 2017 with the Baltimore Ravens.

After his playing days, Escobar became a firefighter in Long Beach, Ca.

The fire department posted about the death on its Facebook page:

It is with deep sadness that we announce the off-duty death of Long Beach Firefighter Gavin Escobar. Hired on February 5, 2022, Firefighter Escobar was assigned to Fire Station 3 on B-shift. Prior to being a Long Beach Firefighter, Gavin Escobar played professional football for the #NFL where he spent most of his time with the #DallasCowboys. Firefighter Escobar leaves behind his wife and two young children.

Former Cowboys tight end Gavin Escobar dies in climbing accident

Escobar played four seasons in Dallas and had recently become a firefighter in California. He leaves behind a wife and two children. | From @ToddBrock24f7

A former Cowboys tight end has died in a rock climbing accident in California. Gavin Escobar, 31, was one of two individuals identified by Riverside County sheriffs after an incident within the San Bernardino National Forest.

Escobar was a second-round draft pick in 2013 out of San Diego State. He played four seasons with the Cowboys, compiling 333 yards and eight touchdowns on 30 receptions over 62 games played.

Unable to make much of an impact on the same roster as Jason Witten, Escobar was released after the 2016 season. He went on to stints with the Chiefs, Ravens, Browns, and Dolphins, but didn’t amass any further stats. It was the end of Escobar’s NFL career, though he went on to play for the San Diego Fleet in the short-lived AAF in 2019.

Escobar, a New York native, had become a firefighter in Long Beach earlier this year and lived in Huntington Beach.

According to a KESQ report, a report of “hikers down” came in just past noon on Wednesday. Crews attempted a rescue but determined that both victims had died at the scene. It’s not yet known if Escobar and his companion were ascending or descending when an accident occurred, or if they died under some other circumstances.

Gavin Escobar leaves behind a wife and two children.

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2021 mock draft ships Cowboys TE with Rob Gronkowski comps

A mock draft gives the Dallas Cowboys a tight end at the back end of the first round.

The Dallas Cowboys tried to find, if not a replacement, a suitable facsimile of tight end Jason Witten for years. The front office drafted Gavin Escobar, Anthony Fasano and Martellus Bennett a round earlier than the future Hall of Famer. They tried finding hidden gems in the later rounds, hoping to steal some talent. Ultimately nothing they tried mattered, as Witten was able to outlast and outperform them all.

In Brent Sobleski’s most recent 2021 mock draft at Bleacher Report, he has the Cowboys trying their luck at the tight end position again, drafting Pat Freiermuth from Penn State with pick No. 28. Says Sobleski, “The 6’5″, 259-pound target, who caught 43 passes for 507 yards last season, continues to draw Rob Gronkowski comparisons.”

That’s high praise, to be sure. It would also be the first time that Dallas used a first-round pick on a tight end since David LaFleur in 1997. It’s not impossible to think that the Cowboys would continue to throw resources at weapons for quarterback Dak Prescott, but the team may already have their tight end of the future in the fold with Blake Jarwin, who signed an extension in March.

The team will likely have further pressing needs, particularly on the back end of the defense. And while Dallas eschewed the same needs for an offensive weapon in CeeDee Lamb in 2020, it’s hard to imagine them doing that in consecutive years when the sheer number of defensive backs scheduled to hit the free-agent market next off-season is mind boggling.

Four of the Cowboys’ projected contributors are free-agents-to-be. Cornerbacks Jourdan Lewis and Chidobe Awuzie as well as the projected starting safety tandem of Xavier Woods and Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix could all be in different uniforms come next year. That’s without mentioning the rest of the depth the team could be losing.

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