Jason Witten retired following the 2017 season but then made a comeback after one year in the Monday Night Football booth thanks to some coaxing from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
The veteran tight end has stated that he wants to get into coaching at the NFL level when he retires a second time. Could that be what ultimately made his mind up to come back? Or perhaps the prospect of being Jason Garrett’s successor has been in the cards all along.
When Witten came out of retirement, he gave all the cookie-cutter answers. He said he missed the game, he still had the fire, and he felt like he still had something to prove to himself.
He may or may not announce his retirement again now that the offseason has officially begun for Dallas, but we do know what he wants to do next. Witten did not say if he wanted to be a head coach now, next year or further down the road; he just said that he wants to coach in the NFL like many players have before him and will after him.
This past week, Witten was asked a question he didn’t want to answer during a press conference. It was along the lines of whether he would be interested in being the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys someday. Instead of answering the question, he walked out. He had just finished talking about getting into coaching and what a great job coaching the Cowboys would be. He had to know that question would be the first one asked after a statement like that came out of his mouth.
This drama has led to even more speculation, especially on social media. After all, why would he not answer? And why did he not come to the defense of his head coach? He could have at least given a generic answer, such as, “Maybe someday down the road.”
However, maybe he has already had those talks with Jerry Jones behind closed doors and that’s what made him decide to come out of retirement back in early 2019. After all, head coach of the Cowboys is one of the higher-profile jobs in the NFL.
Maybe it was all part of Jerry Jones’s plan all along and he just wanted Jason Witten to prove his loyalty to the Cowboys organization and to Jones himself.
Jerry Jones, if nothing else, seems to value loyalty almost as much as he wants to win, so he may be crazy enough to hire Witten as the next head coach. He has made a name for himself by making some of the most ridiculous personnel moves in sports, so why not add elevating his tight end to head coach to the list?
Maybe Jones can even bring the whole old gang back together by hiring Tony Romo and Demarcus Ware, as well as Sean Lee, who many believe will announce his own retirement in the upcoming days.
