One of the Cowboys' all-time greats appears set to call it a career.
Tight end Jason Witten is expected to retire after a 15-year playing career and join ESPN's Monday Night Football broadcast booth as an analyst, NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport reported.
ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported the news first.
"[Witten] has some things to think about and discuss with his family from a professional perspective," said team owner Jerry Jones, who added that he spoke with Witten several times this week. "He also told me that those things are going to require a few more days of consideration, at least through the weekend. He's not made any decisions that are definite at this time, we have no announcement today, as it pertains to Jason's future other than to say that he's a wonderful, valued member of our organization and our family. With respect to Jason and his wishes, this is all we're going to say regarding that subject for the remainder of the weekend."
Witten, 35, would end a prolific career having appeared in 239 games with 229 starts, totaling 1,152 catches for 12,448 yards and 68 touchdowns.
The 11-time Pro Bowler holds numerous NFL records, including most receptions in a single season by a tight end (110 in 2012) and most receptions in a single game by a tight end (18 in 2012).
Witten's 1,152 career receptions rank fourth behind Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice (1,549), tight end Tony Gonzalez (1,325) and Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald (1,234). He is second behind Gonzalez in career receiving yards and Pro Bowl appearances by a tight end.
Additionally, Witten established team franchise records, including most career receptions, most career receiving yards and most consecutive seasons with a reception, among others. Witten's 68 career receiving touchdowns ranks third in Cowboys history and fifth all-time among tight ends in NFL history.
Witten, a two-time first-team All-Pro selection (2007, 2010), joined the Cowboys as a third-round pick out of Tennessee in the 2003 NFL Draft.
Witten's departure leaves a void in Dallas' passing game. The Cowboys released wide receiver Dez Bryant leading up to the draft, and the duo combined for 1,398 yards and 11 touchdowns on 132 catches in 2017.
With Witten's impending retirement, and the recent release of Bryant, the Cowboys have seen three cornerstone pieces of the franchise leave since the end of the 2016 season. Quarterback Tony Romo, the team's all-time leader in yards passing (34,183) and passing touchdowns (248) retired in April 2017.
In the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft, the Cowboys used the 19th overall selection on linebacker Leighton Vander Esch. The Cowboys, however, could look to bolster the tight end and wide receiver positions over the next two days when considering Dallas is armed with nine remaining draft picks.
Dallas' current group of tight ends on the roster includes Rico Gathers, Blake Jarwin and Geoff Swaim. Of the trio, Swaim has nine career receptions, while Jarwin and Gathers have yet to haul in a catch.
As the Cowboys prepare for Day Two of the draft, options at the tight end position could include top draft prospects Dallas Goedert, Mark Andrews and Mike Gesicki.
Don't start penciling in the Cowboys for a tight end in those Day 2 mock drafts just yet. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, at the introductory press conference for first-round pick Leighton Vander Esch, briefly addressed speculation and rumors that longtime Cowboys tight end Jason Witten will retire and join ESPN as an analyst for "Monday Night Football."
In short, Jerry said that he spoke with Witten and that no final decision about his retirement has been made just yet. Jerry then said he won't be addressing the situation any further this weekend, per Witten's wishes.
Jerry Jones: I've talked to Jason Witten several times this week, met with him a few hours ago and we've had great discussions. He has some things to think about and discuss with his family and he'll need a few more days of consideration. No final decision made on retirement. — Brandon George (@DMN_George) April 27, 2018
Via Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News, here's a video of Jerry's full statement:
Jerry Jones’ statement on Jason Witten pic.twitter.com/ySmygeHGG7 — Jon Machota (@jonmachota) April 27, 2018
In the meantime, rumors abound about the Cowboys' targets on the second day of the draft. One report has them targeting SMU's Courtland Sutton at No. 50 in an effort to replace Dez Bryant, while NFLDraftScout's Dane Brugler (who is extremely plugged-in down in Dallas) notes that they're doing extra homework on the Round 2 and 3 tight ends in preparation to possibly select one on Friday night.
The Cowboys won't say so, but I'm told they are doing A LOT of extra homework today on this TE group. They will consider drafting the position tonight. https://t.co/xxGLeiKZa1 — Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) April 27, 2018
Things appear to be very much in flux for Dallas right now, with the team undergoing pretty massive turnover in Dak Prescott's pass-catching corps. The team has already released Bryant and seen tight end James Hanna retire, and now Witten may call it quits as well. They've signed Allen Hurns and Deonte Thompson at receiver, and it's possible we could see both preseason star Rico Gathers and backup Geoff Swaim take over larger roles at tight end. That still would'nt give them the most inspiring mix of weapons on the outside, so we should be on the lookout for them to add talent at those positions at some point during the draft, even if it's not Friday.
The Dallas Cowboys are America's Team, and they have fans all over the country -- even in enemy territory. Still, growing up a Cowboys fan when you live in central New Jersey can be a bit lonely at times. Most of my childhood friends were fans of the New York Giants, and those that weren't mostly favored the Jets.
I never really had a choice when it came to my Cowboys fandom, though. My father was going to make damn sure that both of his sons were Cowboys fans if it was the last thing he ever did. (We are, but it wasn't.) I was wearing Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith jerseys before I really knew what football was. Of course, if my father's prodding didn't seal my allegiance to the team with the star on the side of its helmet, the team's massive run of success during the early part of my childhood likely would have done it anyway. The Cowboys won three Super Bowl before I turned 8 years old, and I'm sure back then I felt like they would never stop winning.
We know that's not how things turned out. The Cowboys did in fact stop winning Super Bowls after 1995, and for a while during my early teen years, they stopped winning much of anything. They cycled through coaches and quarterbacks on a seemingly annual basis, bouncing from Barry Switzer to Chan Gailey to Dave Campo and from the end of the Troy Aikman era to the short-lived reigns of Quincy Carter and Anthony Wright and Ryan Leaf and Clint Stoerner and Chad Hutchinson.
When the 'Boys responded to their third consecutive 5-11 season under Campo by firing him and replacing him with the legendary Bill Parcells during the 2003 offseason, I couldn't have been more psyched. The first draft pick of the Parcells Era was Terence Newman, who I had just watched dominate college football alongside Ell Roberson and Darren Sproles at Kansas State. Things were looking way, way up, I told myself at the time. And then my 'Boys started rattling off boring prospects. A center I'd never heard of. A goofy looking tight end. A linebacker who seemingly spelled Brady wrong. A guy whose name was seriously Zuriel.
I hated the tight end pick the most. I was still scarred by early-round tight end selections of the recent past, like Kendall Watkins and Eric Bjornson and worst of all, David LaFleur, who this newest tight end looked strangely similar to in size and body type. As you no doubt know by now, I have never been more wrong about anything than I was about that goofy tight end; because that guy was Jason Witten, one of the best Cowboys of all time and a likely Hall of Famer.
Witten has been in my life for longer than most people I know, and he has spent most of that time boggling the minds of opposing defenses and fanbases alike. Witten was never what we'd think of as a superior athlete and he has had precisely zero flash to his game from Day 1. The most athletic thing he ever did was merely have good enough balance to absorb a colossal hit, lose his helmet, and stay off the ground so that he could run an additional 30 or so yards down the field.
Mostly, what Witten did was execute everything with picture-perfect technique, which he had to do in order to get himself open. How this dude, who has been one of the slowest players in the league seemingly forever, continued to find himself open 8-to-10 yards downfield as the league got bigger and faster and quicker and stronger while he stayed exactly the same size and got slower and slower and slower and slower will never cease to amaze me. But he did it, because he was just that crafty. Always.
And when I say always, boy, do I mean always. Witten missed just a single game during his illustrious 15-year career, all the way back in Week 5 of his rookie season. He played 235 consecutive games after that, and he started every single time the Cowboys played from 2004 on. He played with his jaw wired shut in 2003 and with a lacerated spleen in 2012. He played with a fractured rib in 2008 and a sprained MCL in 2010 and with sprains in both his ankles and his knee, all at the same time, in 2015. And he just kept getting open.
Witten is reportedly expected to inform Jerry Jones of his retirement at some point on Friday. He'll head to ESPN to call games on "Monday Night Football," joining his best friend and longtime teammate Tony Romo, as well as other franchise legends like Troy Aikman and Daryl Johnston and Deion Sanders and (my all-time favorite player) Michael Irvin as famous Cowboys on TV. Witten seems likely to shine in the role because he's amiable and friendly, and he loves football, and he's so damn smart. He's long been what reporters call a "great quote," which basically just means he gives real answers as opposed to the rote robotic type of stuff players are now trained to deliver. And of course, he can lean on his wealth of experience and success.
From his NFL debut through the end of his time in the league, only one player in the NFL caught more passes than Jason Witten (Larry Fitzgerald, natch). Only five racked up more receiving yards (Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith and Reggie Wayne). Witten ranks fourth in league history with his 1,152 catches, and 21st all-time with his 12,448 yards. Only one tight end ever made more Pro Bowls (Tony Gonzalez) and only two (Gonzalez and Antonio Gates) accumulated more value from the beginning of their career to the end, according to Pro-Football-Reference's Approximate Value. He was one of the very rare opposing players to draw praise from Bill Belichick.
During that span of time I graduated from high school and college and law school. I started and ended my own football "career," and admitted to my father that no, I will not actually be trying to walk onto to the University of Miami football team because I am very much aware that I am actually not very good at all. I've had three different careers and I've written for countless websites. I've called nine different physical locations home. I've made new friends and kept old ones, and lost some of both as well. I've lost my childhood dog to old age and I've grown old and responsible and financially stable enough to adopt another dog of my own. I've seen friends and relatives pass away and I've seen friends get married and have children of their own. I've had my heart broken and I've broken some hearts myself. I've had great triumphs and great struggles. I've spent far more time injured than Jason Witten (two knee tears and two hip tears and much, much more), and as mentioned, I stopped playing football altogether just two years into Witten's career.
Through it all, Witten has just gone out there every single Sunday and done what he does. That's over now.
Jason Witten was born five years and two days before me, and he was drafted into the NFL a week and a half before I turned 16 years old. He's retiring from the game exactly 15 years to the day after he was drafted, which means I'm now a week and a half away from turning 31. I've lived almost exactly half a lifetime with Jason Witten as a regular presence in my life, and I've been invested in his success. Given his new job, it seems likely I'll be spending a lot more time with him (on my TV) in the future.
But it won't be the same. He won't be wearing No. 82 or a star on his helmet. He won't be wearing a helmet at all. And he won't be open 8-to-10 yards downfield. He'll be in a suit and wearing an earpiece and holding a microphone. And I'll be wondering where it is my youth went.
