‘It’s a show me game.’ Witten the broadcaster said Witten the player must prove it
Jason Witten isn’t worried about playing time with the Dallas Cowboys.
At least that’s what he’s telling the media.
But if you’ve known Witten during his 15 seasons with the Cowboys, you know he never enjoyed time on the sideline.
After spending the 2018 season in the broadcast booth, Witten knows he has to prove himself again to earn the kind of playing time he had when he was an 11-time Pro Bowl selection.
“It’s a show-me game. You’ve got to be able to find ways to get open. You have to find ways to play at the point of attack,” Witten said when asked how Witten the broadcaster would evaluate Witten the returning 37-year-old tight end. “I’d want to see it. I’d want to see if they can do that.”
Witten, who didn’t participate in organized team activities Wednesday, said he’ll let playing time take care of itself. Expectations and playing time were discussed with coach Jason Garrett at the time Witten decided to return, which he said started getting serious after he called the Colts-Texans playoff game.
“I think any competitor when you’re not out on the football field, that’s a challenge,” he said. “That’d be crazy if I’d think that wouldn’t be a challenge. We talked through a lot of different things. I can’t control all of that stuff. My job when I made this decision was to physically get back. That’s been my challenge every day when I wake up.”
Witten, it seems, appears to think that once he works himself back into adequate playing shape, his natural talent will be good enough to be the full-time tight end. But if not, he’ll live with it.
“There’s a lot of questions out there about me, too. I’m anxious to go prove that I can play,” he said. “But I also know that may not include every play and every snap. They’ll make those decision. Those coaches work long hours. They’re smart. Obviously, I have a lot of respect for Jason and the program he’s built here and who he is as a man and a coach. I can’t worry about how that plays out. My job is to kind of make it tough on him. We all benefit if that’s the case.”
Witten, who built a Hall of Fame career with a strong reliance on the fundamentals and honing the techniques of a tight end, pointed out that speed was never his game. That gives him confidence that he’ll be able to recapture what made him so reliable before his one-year sabbatical. But, he added, Witten the broadcaster would want to see it before he believed it.
“I have a lot of confidence with my time in this system and what allows you to be successful,” he said. “I have to go back to doing that. That’s what gives me confidence. But it’s a young man’s game. I’d need to see it from him before I believed it.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2019 at 4:45 PM.
