Witten has screwed the Cowboys twice now

dfense

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Last year, he retired unexpectedly, leaving the Cowboys to go into the offseason with subpar TE talent. This year, he throws a monkey wrench in the plans again, at the last minute, and puts the franchise in an odd position.

He's going to leech snaps from any TE they may draft, and hinder the development of the guys already on the roster. He's definitely taken them out of the free agency mix for TEs.
Or, he may show these current TE's how to actually block.
 

IrishAnto

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Let's be honest here.

If you'd just heard the Cowboys had signed a soon to be 37 year old TE who had been out for football for a year to a $3.5m contract without hearing the name, would you be jumping for joy?
 

MaaS

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I hear you. Witten will always be one of my favorite Cowboys, but his timing last year is difficult to forgive. You can't make that decision a couple days before the draft? Come on.

If we pass on a guy like Noah Fant or Irv Smith because Witten came back I'm going to lose it lol.
 

CouchCoach

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We have no clue as to who will be on the board when we pick, every year players slide and fall from where people expected them to go, we see other rise on draft day and selected well before many felt they should so bottom line we don't know who is on the board at any give time. I'm not opposed to getting a TE nor am I opposed to taking any other position were their are also needs. Heading into this off season pending DLaw contract I would have said DE is a position of strength for this team and now this week it became a position of need. DT, Woods did a great job but after that we are thin along that DL and need help. So again I'm more interested in getting top players if that is TE great but I'm not putting everything on Dallas getting a TE in this draft or not.
The only two I wanted, Fant or Hockenson will not be there at 58, and D players are much higher on the needs list. Even without Witten coming back, unless one of those two was there at 58, I'd be going D with the first two picks.
 

unionjack8

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Last year, he retired unexpectedly, leaving the Cowboys to go into the offseason with subpar TE talent. This year, he throws a monkey wrench in the plans again, at the last minute, and puts the franchise in an odd position.

He's going to leech snaps from any TE they may draft, and hinder the development of the guys already on the roster. He's definitely taken them out of the free agency mix for TEs.
Kind if agree but he is still better than what we have.
an upgrade
 

wecasa

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with all of his analysis of the y option play in a previous post, I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't take the Kellen Moore path. Minus the stint on Injured Reserve. TE coach anyone?
 

robjay04

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Last year, he retired unexpectedly, leaving the Cowboys to go into the offseason with subpar TE talent. This year, he throws a monkey wrench in the plans again, at the last minute, and puts the franchise in an odd position.

He's going to leech snaps from any TE they may draft, and hinder the development of the guys already on the roster. He's definitely taken them out of the free agency mix for TEs.

It’s not really last minute. Luckily he didn’t do this after the first round of the draft.
 

Redball Express

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Last year, he retired unexpectedly, leaving the Cowboys to go into the offseason with subpar TE talent. This year, he throws a monkey wrench in the plans again, at the last minute, and puts the franchise in an odd position.

He's going to leech snaps from any TE they may draft, and hinder the development of the guys already on the roster. He's definitely taken them out of the free agency mix for TEs.
My God bro..

Really?

These other TEs have to beat Witten out to deserve snaps.

Witten is better than they are even now.

Additionally..

We do not have to draft a TE and can look at DL with all the suspensions.

We are darn lucky he is wanting to play.

I will remind you that with Witten in the lineup..

all these sacks DAK had in 2018 will drop dramatically with Witten becuz he is always open for a quick gain when DAK is in trouble.

You are not looking at the positives which are too many to list.

We all want a superstud TE to go with the rest of the offense..

but not going to happen yet.

Witten wants to win.

He knows how to win his matchups.

Settle down.

If you want clicks..

no problem.

Give us a thread we can really debate.

Thanx.
:thumbup:
 

ABQCOWBOY

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I don't give a damn about the so called hindering a players development. I care about winning games, if guys are out there making plays they will see more playing time and if they are not getting it done as was the case most of last year then we need to get someone in who can make the plays. Dallas used 4 TE last and combined they could not produce to the level Witten did in 2017.

I'm so tired of this. At what point does Rico get good enough to actually help us and stop being a player that's being hindered in his development? I think there are plenty of snaps to go around and I'm here to tell anybody and everybody that while we have some promising pass catching TEs, we have nobody who couldn't get better in terms of blocking and Witten, if nothing else, can still teach that.
 

DallasEast

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Last year, he retired unexpectedly, leaving the Cowboys to go into the offseason with subpar TE talent. This year, he throws a monkey wrench in the plans again, at the last minute, and puts the franchise in an odd position.

He's going to leech snaps from any TE they may draft, and hinder the development of the guys already on the roster. He's definitely taken them out of the free agency mix for TEs.
I believe it would be more fair stating the front office screwed themselves by not drafting solidly talented tight end replacements before Witten retired initially.
 

glimmerman

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Witten didn't do anything to the team, he did something for himself when a job with another future opened up and the window was only open for a short period of time. Didn't work out.

And from what I've read, they've pretty much been on him to come back since he left. They want him, he's not forcing them to take him.

Like a lot of you, I have doubts about how well he can play but I don't fault him for wanting to come back home where he is welcome. On the human level, I do not know what it was like for him to do that Cowboys game up there in that booth and not be on the field after that many years.

I do know one thing, Witten is better thought of by fans of other teams than he is by some of our own.
If has 2017 stats that some are saying is so bad it’s still a upgrade over last year. I expect worse stats but playing together with improvement from the players we have in Jarwin and Shultz then it’s another weapon.
 

HanD

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We have no clue as to who will be on the board when we pick, every year players slide and fall from where people expected them to go, we see other rise on draft day and selected well before many felt they should so bottom line we don't know who is on the board at any give time. I'm not opposed to getting a TE nor am I opposed to taking any other position were their are also needs. Heading into this off season pending DLaw contract I would have said DE is a position of strength for this team and now this week it became a position of need. DT, Woods did a great job but after that we are thin along that DL and need help. So again I'm more interested in getting top players if that is TE great but I'm not putting everything on Dallas getting a TE in this draft or not.

when you pick, you do know who is on the board still at all the positions mentioned. if one position has more depth and players still available but that player is slightly higher rated than another position that doesn't have depth, i'm taking the slightly lower rated player based on draft positional depth.

i personally don't see DT as a huge need. i'd like to sign a guy like malcolm brown, chris covington (texans), zach kerr, peko, or similar NT type that can play situationally and rotate with woods, but we have good depth at DT imo. woods and crawford with ross as ERFA. bring back one of jones or reid on a modest contract. we still have collins also. that's 6 deep already.
 

CouchCoach

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Hell if anything a year without the bumps and bruises may help him. As I said before I don't think speed has ever been a staple of Witten, precise routs and great hands, the ability to block and seal off the edge are things I don't think Jason forgot how to do in 1 year. Given he has made this choice now, he has ample time to get himself ready and few will ever out work Witten.
And I do not underestimate his desire to prove Booger/Garrett right for bringing him back, they will get his best.

If this removes TE from high up the needs list and D positions move up, I am fine with this. They've got to fix this DL or those two LB's we love so much are going to get the hell beat out of them.
 

Cowboys22

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I don’t see why anyone would be complaining about this. They said TE and S were the two priorities this offseason. That means it was a real possibility that they wouldn’t be able to draft a DT, DE, or skill guy until round 3 after taking a TE in the 2nd. Would anyone be happy with that? Now they can hopefully go get ET and their biggest concerns are now taken care of freeing up the draft in rounds 2-4 to get DL help and maybe a skill guy or two. Witten, Jarwin, and Shultz is a fine TE group. Next year, when they have all their picks, drafting a TE high will be more palatable.
 

glimmerman

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I wonder if Witten was wanting to come back after he saw Linehan was gone?
 

Doomsday101

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I'm so tired of this. At what point does Rico get good enough to actually help us and stop being a player that's being hindered in his development? I think there are plenty of snaps to go around and I'm here to tell anybody and everybody that while we have some promising pass catching TEs, we have nobody who couldn't get better in terms of blocking and Witten, if nothing else, can still teach that.

Rico is on the final year of his contract at 570 thousand is worth bringing back to camp. Rico has had ample time to learn and develop but when we kick off for real I'm not as interested in playing developmental football I want win games. Witten did not take 3 or 4 years to become a TE he showed it day 1 that he was capable and by year 2 was playing at a pro bowl level. I'm one who tend to believe you show the coaches through out the week that you can get the job done and then make the plays that come your way in the game and you will get your chance. If you can't earn it then you have no business being out there to begin with.
 

glimmerman

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Rico is on the final year of his contract at 570 thousand is worth bringing back to camp. Rico has had ample time to learn and develop but when we kick off for real I'm not as interested in playing developmental football I want win games. Witten did not take 3 or 4 years to become a TE he showed it day 1 that he was capable and by year 2 was playing at a pro bowl level. I'm one who tend to believe you show the coaches through out the week that you can get the job done and then make the plays that come your way in the game and you will get your chance. If you can't earn it then you have no business being out there to begin with.
He had those preseason games that weren’t bad. I know it’s against lower talent players. But looked like he showed enough to get a better chance than what he did. They must have really seen something they didn’t like.
 

CouchCoach

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I wonder if Witten was wanting to come back after he saw Linehan was gone?
I do think his decision was affected by that and there sure aren't any wet eyes about Linehan's departure and quite a few are on the Kellen wagon.

However, I think what really drove it was the opening of the job and his buddy's instant success and the tradition of ex Cowboys in the booth. However, I think if he'd felt they had a shot at the title, he would have passed on that. But, while he's had a bright career, his teams have not and he's been through a bunch of BS, including being Dez Bryant's babysitter. Think Booger didn't ask him to be Bryant's guardian?

Then again, we might all be off base and he hates Garrett as much as this forum and he's coming back to make some timely drops to make sure he gets fired? Just kidding, he and Garrett are tight and he would try to come back to help save his job.
 
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