NFL Combine Cowboys: Witten? Jarwin? Introducing the 20 Tight Ends In Indy
Jason Witten, ESPN writes in its 2020 Dallas Cowboys projection, "is going to be a reliable set of hands who catches the ball eight 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.''
But as the Cowboys settle in in Indianapolis for this week's NFL Scouting Combine, that prediction doesn't look right at all. 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.
How about turning the page to Jarwin ... and maybe to a draftee?
The invaluable Bill Huber of SI.com/Maven walks us through the NFL Draft options at tight end ...
Introducing the 20 Tight Ends
Part 1: Kmet, Moss and the Bryants
Part 2: Small-school stars Trautman and Taumoepeau, and five SEC standouts