Cowboys 'To-Do List' Criticism, Part 5: 'Make A Decision at Tight End'
FRISCO - The respected Bill Barnwell offers up a series at ESPN billed as being about "the first five things (NFL teams) should be thinking about as they prepare for the new league year, which begins on March 18.''
In reviewing it, we sense a "Dallas sucks'' tone as much as we do an analytical one. Maybe it's due to the fact that the 8-8 record from 2019 colors every single thing about the Cowboys in tones of disappointment.
But we're not sure that's fair ... and so we tackle Barnwell's analysis of the Cowboys with our analysis of Bill's analysis ... all this week, a five-part series on Bill's five parts, which are about:
Lock Up Dak (read it here), 2) Transition-Tag Amari (read it here), 3) Build Around Tank (read it here), 4) Sign a Star DB and 5) Find a Tight End. Today, Part 5, Find a Solution at Tight End ...
Barnwell Job 5. Find a solution at tight end. Jason Witten, Barnwell writes, "is going to be a reliable set of hands who catches the ball 8 yards downfield and falls down (he ranks 135th out of 140 receivers in average yards after catch) for as long as he wants. ... The Cowboys will likely bring Witten, 37, back for another season if he wants to return.''
FISH'S TAKE: Yeah, that's not exactly what's happening so far. Witten has petitioned with Cowboys bosses, multiple times, and they have not let him do "whatever he wants.''
That, in all honesty, is what the previous regime was guilty of.
Against all logic, former coach Jason Garrett set up Witten as a "progress-stopper.'' On multiple occasions, Cowboys staffers in 2019 suggested to Garrett that Blake Jarwin get snaps ahead of the iconic Witten. In the end, Jarwin played 35 percent of the snaps, Witten 85 - an exact flip-flop of what some assistants were arguing for.
We'll be stunned if Barnwell ends up being right about Witten's stature allowing him to get "whatever he wants'' in 2020. Even Witten himself doesn't express that view.
But while we think he's wrong, we respect Barnwell's outside-The-Star viewpoint because, well, it's always been that way.
