Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten has been out of football for a year after deciding to retire and head to the broadcast booth following the 2017 campaign, but now Witten is back and ready for another NFL season.
Naturally, people are wondering whether or not the 37-year-old will be the same, but NFL analyst and former Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo thinks Witten will be just fine.
“He’ll pick up right where he left off,” Romo said Wednesday on 105.3 The Fan, via Jon Machota of The Dallas Morning News. “I don’t think it’s a big challenge for Jason. The reality of it is as long as, if you know the game the way he does, there are certain positions — he plays one of them at tight end — he’s always going to have the nuance to get open. Let’s say he runs the exact same he always did, to me, it’s just that at that position, your ability to use leverage against somebody, make you think this and then do that. It’s like the back pick in basketball. Just all of a sudden, it gets you and you don’t even know it was coming and that guy is wide open. He’s very intelligent with the game of football. I think he’s going to pick up right from when he retired. I think you’re going to see the same guy.”
Romo makes a lot of good points.
Even during Witten's prime, he was never a guy who relied on his athleticism. He was never the fastest tight end, nor was he ever really able to make defenders miss in the open field.
Witten's game was predicated on his smarts and his ability to read the defense and find a way to get open.
So, taking all of that into consideration, it would not be a surprise if Witten did, in fact, pick up right where he left off in 2017.
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