The Dallas Cowboys finally saw the expected departure of Pro Bowl tight end Jason Witten on Thursday afternoon after 15 seasons, which has left a massive hole to fill for the franchise. Throughout his illustrious career, Witten has been the cornerstone for the production at the position that the team has heavily depended upon in the passing game.

This has left the Cowboys in the position of having to find a method to make up for the large void left by the departure of Witten. According to Jon Machota of SportsDay, Dallas plans on taking the committee approach to make-up for what the 35-year-old brought to the table for the franchise.

New tight ends coach Doug Nussmeier and the entire offensive coaching staff will attempt to fill that large hole with a committee approach.

The Cowboys have assembled a group of unproven talent at the position James Hanna, Geoff Swaim, Rico Gathers and Blake Jarwin. Neither one of these players last season was able to crack double-digits in receptions, which presents a major question mark in terms what to expect this upcoming campaign.

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The team has also added former Stanford tight end Dalton Schultz in the fourth round of this year's draft to potentially step to become their next primary target in the passing game down the line.

Cowboys could also go the stop-gap route of picking up a proven talent via free agency with several prominent names still floating around in the open market. There are several viable options such as Antonio Gates, Marcedes Lewis, and Julius Thomas, and Brent Celek who can all come in and contribute right away. Each of these players has proven in the past that they be highly dependable factors in the passing game when given the opportunity.

At this point, it is still quite early in the process with training camp set to get underway just under two weeks from now. There could be more clarity as to what the Cowboys plan to do once they get a better sense of who can separate themselves from the bunch in the coming months