Wild fact about Witten and the 2003 draft

[plymkr]

My favorite story about Witten is when we drafted him I was working in this agency for troubled youth and foster kids. The mailman was this old guy who wore a baseball hat with the Star on it. We got talking and he was a die hard fan since the 70’s. Older guy so he was around and was a fan pre Staubach era. Anyway me and him would talk every Tuesday when he would come in and deliver the week’s worth of packages for kids. He kept saying over and over again, “ watch that kid from Tennessee, he’s going to be great”. Every week he said that. Then I got a new job and never saw him again but every time Witten made a play I could still hear the old mailman’s voice talking about that “Tennessee kid”.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

I don't remember anybody else wanting to draft him in the 1st...

not the first, but he was a pretty popular pick for us in the second among fans

you were probably on an island for that one

 

[kskboys]

How much of that has to do with who drafts you? Bennie was drafted to a garbage team. Even though Witten had a good year with Testaverde at QB, he only consistently got close to or over 1000 yards when Romo was throwing to him.

In this case, none. Joppy caught 0 passes for his career. No matter what team, you are bad.

 

[kskboys]

TEs who are a threat are hard to find, but much of their production is more situation dependent than anything else.
Lots of guys can run 5 yards downfield, cut under zone coverage, and churn out good TE production. You just need a QB who's competent enough to throw over the middle and not get picked. Then if you get the targets, the yardage racks up.

Much harder than you are making it out to be.

 

[kskboys]

Here's another wild Jason Witten fact:

When asked how many pushups he could do, Jason Witten replied, "All of them."

Me too. Wait.................does zero count as all?????

 

[Flamma]

In this case, none. Joppy caught 0 passes for his career. No matter what team, you are bad.

That may be true. But that has no impact on Witten. How much did Romo help Witten?

Think of Justine Fields. He was drafted to a crap Bears team. The QB the Bears just drafted has a ton of support compared to Fields. It makes a difference.

 

[tunahelper]

What happens is that teams fall in love w/ 2 things about draftees: 1)Upside. 2)Flash.

Jopalop had bigger flash and upside than Witten. Witten was a chain moving TE and was the best of all time at that. For some really weird reason, many today, both fans and NFL personnel, think that O players must be big play guys. The truth is, the big play guys are easily neutralized w/o the chain movers. And the chain movers are rendered less effective w/o the big play guys to stretch the field.

Now, the type of WR that is most conducive to winning super bowls is your chain movers. An absolute must have for a super bowl run.

Agreed but Witten made big splash plays regularly early in his career. He would burn the secondary for chunk gains at the hashes.

 

[kskboys]

That may be true. But that has no impact on Witten. How much did Romo help Witten?

Think of Justine Fields. He was drafted to a crap Bears team. The QB the Bears just drafted has a ton of support compared to Fields. It makes a difference.

Fields sucks as an NFL passer. Has nothing to do w/ Bears weapons. Although I will point out they had more than competent Darnell Mooney and then Allan Robinson. Fields kept getting benched because he sucked. I have no idea why the media made him the golden boy when he was terrible. NFL GM's were certainly aware how bad he is, no one offered crapp when he was put on the block.

 

[kskboys]

Agreed but Witten made big splash plays regularly early in his career. He would burn the secondary for chunk gains at the hashes.

Not regularly, but he did make a splash play occasionally when they focused their coverage on him short.

 

[Flamma]

Fields sucks as an NFL passer. Has nothing to do w/ Bears weapons. Although I will point out they had more than competent Darnell Mooney and then Allan Robinson. Fields kept getting benched because he sucked. I have no idea why the media made him the golden boy when he was terrible. NFL GM's were certainly aware how bad he is, no one offered crapp when he was put on the block.

Fields was your typical first read/run QB out of college. I remember a statistic showing he had over 300 straight passes without an interception. That statistic tells you flat out, if the first read isn't there, he takes off. That's why no picks.

The biggest problem with some of these teams when drafting these QBs is they try to change them entirely. Neither the Bears nor the 49ers managed the talents of Fields or Lance. As opposed to what the Eagles did with Hurts. Hurts is not a pocket passer. They tried that in 2021.

I will say one thing. Fields and Lance should never have been drafted in the first round.

 

[J_Allen]

I wanted to draft Witten in the 1st.

I cussed Parcells when they skipped him in the 2nd.

Some mock drafts had him going in the first.