Trade Witten?

[Future]

2013 Pass Rating by Target (Romo only)
Witten 61 of 93 716 yd 8 td 0 int 117.5
Williams 42 of 69 679 yd 5 td 2 int 105.9
Bryant 85 of 142 1150 yd 12 td 3 int 105.1
Murray 48 of 55 311 yd 1 td 0 int 96.3
Beasley 38 of 49 361 yd 2 td 2 int 94.0
others 68 of 127 611 yd 3 td 3 int 64.8

Yep. Totally unreliable for Romo. God that Witten guy sucks.

I never said he sucks, don't exaggerate.

Its easy to be reliable when you hardly ever get targeted more than 10 yards down the field. The guy is a check down, more often than not, its easy to get a high passer rating to those guys.

 

[dogunwo]

It's seemingly the talk of NFL podcasts and draft websites with plenty of teams likely to desire his services and us desperately in need of cap space. So, would you do it? If so what would it take? I think a high 2nd rounder would be enough given this draft class. He'll be 32 at the start of next season and can't have many more seasons left in the tank.

Low trade value.

 

[dogunwo]

Someone would give up a 2nd rounder for Witten. Teams like the Jets and Bills would love a HOF TE to help develop their new, young QBs.

I think you drastically overrate his trade value. I think Witten is great and all, but no one is giving up a second for a slow aging TE, who's best asset is "no one works harder than him".

Plus, you would piss off your franchise QB

 

[hairic]

Random fact that I don't care to prove with evidence: Witten has the fastest functional first step of all our receivers.

 

[birdwells1]

Why? If you take away 35% of Witten's targets, somebody has to pick up the slack.

Dez, Williams, Beasley, Dunbar, and Murray can do more with the ball after the catch, so if you spread those targets among them I'd think that it would be an improvement.

Appreciate the stats and research that you provide this site.

 

[justbob]

Witten is fast approaching the age of other greats like Larry Allen. He is still important--but at what cost can he be justified.

 

[ilovejerry]

Yea, his drop in the Philly game that ended up in the hands of a defender really showed how dependable he is.

The guy has lost more than a step. I love him and everything he's given this franchise, but if you can get a 2nd rounder for him, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Plus, when he's off the field, we could be way more explosive because we could have more speed, and Romo wouldn't force passes into him all the time.

Having said that, I don't see any way it happens.

One or two bad plays in a career …guy isn't dependable?

 

[dogunwo]

One or two bad plays in a career …guy isn't dependable?

Seriously?

 

[ShiningStar]

That was a contract driven decision and Tony G made it clear he wanted out. At that time he was the 2nd highest paid guy on the team and wouldn't take a pay cut. Imagine if we had a TE under that kind of contract who all but came out publically and said he was ready to move on.

U move on.....not rocket science. ..if a guy doesn't want to produce. ..u cant make him and he can make it harder on u than its worth

 

[bayeslife]

Nobody is gonna offer anything more than a 4th for Witten anyway.

 

[KJJ]

A 3rd round pick?? Yeah that makes a lot of sense, trade one of the best TE's ever for another Gavin Escobar or some scrub DB.

Hard to make an accurate judgement of Escobar with Witten around. He might be an excellent player if he got more of an opportunity. We'll never know what he really is as a player with Witten here. Marty B has looked pretty good since he left Witten's shadow. I hated the selection of a TE with a #2 last April but it was the position we chose not the player I had an issue with.

 

[Nation]

I never said he sucks, don't exaggerate.

Its easy to be reliable when you hardly ever get targeted more than 10 yards down the field. The guy is a check down, more often than not, its easy to get a high passer rating to those guys.

For Tight Ends Witten also had the 3rd most receptions amongst all tight ends on targets of 20 yards downfield or more.

 

[KJJ]

Witten is a lot more valuable to the Cowboys than anything they would get in a trade for him. The most you would get for him is a 3rd round pick and the way the Cowboys draft whoever they select might not last 2 years with the team. Witten still produces and never misses games due to injury which made using a #2 on Escobar senseless.

 

[Future]

For Tight Ends Witten also had the 3rd most receptions amongst all tight ends on targets of 20 yards downfield or more.

Where are you getting that from? According to NFL.com, he had 13 catches that went for 20+ yards. How many of them were balls that actually went 20 yards through the air? That number would be so small that it doesn't really outweigh all of the short passes that are just as check downs more than anything.

 

[Nation]

Where are you getting that from? According to NFL.com, he had 13 catches that went for 20+ yards. How many of them were balls that actually went 20 yards through the air? That number would be so small that it doesn't really outweigh all of the short passes that are just as check downs more than anything.

ProFootballFocus. He had 6 receptions on targets of 20 yards or more, (IE balls that traveled 20 yards or more in the air, not run and catch).

Vernon Davis led all tight ends with 11, followed by Jimmy Graham at 8, and Witten and Jordan Cameron were tied at 6.

 

[Future]

ProFootballFocus. He had 6 receptions on targets of 20 yards or more, (IE balls that traveled 20 yards or more in the air, not run and catch).

Vernon Davis led all tight ends with 11, followed by Jimmy Graham at 8, and Witten and Jordan Cameron were tied at 6.

Hmm, I guess relative to other TEs he ranks higher than I would have expected. But I don't think that number is big enough to really change my mind about thinking that we could actually be more explosive without him.

 

[percyhoward]

Dez, Williams, Beasley, Dunbar, and Murray can do more with the ball after the catch, so if you spread those targets among them I'd think that it would be an improvement.

Appreciate the stats and research that you provide this site.

Thanks.

Part of what the research shows is that Beasley and Williams were high-risk targets in 2013. If you take away targets from Witten and give them to those two, you'd better hope that something has changed. Murray only moved the chains on 28% of his targets. Giving Murray more of Witten's targets means fewer first downs for the offense, unless something changes there. Dez got the right amount of targets--you don't want to approach A.J. Green levels because the defense starts sitting on those. Whether Dez's targets could have been better is another story, but he got the right amount. Dunbar is an unknown quantity, but a promising one. I'd hope his targets would take away from Murray, not Witten.

Even if you spread the 40 or so targets around among the other guys, there's no reason to take away targets from someone who's giving you 8 TD/1 INT, and moving the chains 40% of the time, with a 111.1 rating on 109 targets. That's the main thing I'm trying to communicate, that those are outstanding numbers. You're hung up on one dimension of receiving (YAC) that assumes the catch was made in the first place. Look at the stats that win games. If a QB had a 111.1 rating, 8 TD/1 INT, on 109 attempts, with 40% of those passes resulting in a first down, he'd probably be 3-0 or 4-0 and nobody would care about how much YAC was involved.

Witten + more YAC would be great. Somebody who's good at YAC isn't necessarily that though.

 

[percyhoward]

ProFootballFocus. He had 6 receptions on targets of 20 yards or more, (IE balls that traveled 20 yards or more in the air, not run and catch).

Vernon Davis led all tight ends with 11, followed by Jimmy Graham at 8, and Witten and Jordan Cameron were tied at 6.

Good point. Witten was also the only one of the four who caught as many as 50% of those passes, and the only one without an INT.

 

[Nirvana]

Bottom line: Romo would never give his okay for a trade, period. Jerry would not pull the trigger on it just on that alone.

 

[iceberg]

LOL, so how does someone who doesn't have much left have trade value.?

you'll have to ask the op, i have no idea. he's saying witten doesn't have anything left but apparently trade value.