DALLAS (105.3 The Fan/AP) - Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten hopes to continue playing for the Cowboys next season, Jon Machota of The Athletic reported Thursday.
Witten's future has been up in the air since the season ended and it was believed he had an interest in becoming a coach.
Despite expressing his interest in returning, Witten acknowledged that he could also look to play elsewhere in 2020 should things not work out with the Cowboys.
"But I realize I'm a free agent too in March. Any time a new staff comes together, I've played a long time, so I realize that may mean somewhere else too," he said, per Machota.
New Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy told the media, including 105.3 The Fan's Mike Fisher, that he has spoken to Witten, and the tight end has a lot of options on the table.
Witten returned for a club-record 16th season with Dallas after a year in retirement as a broadcaster in part because the tight end thought the Cowboys could make a Super Bowl run. Dallas began the season 3-0 but proceeded to go 5-8 the rest of the way and missed the playoffs.
“It doesn’t always go where you’re going to get a 13-3 (season) and a (No.) 1 seed and a bye and home playoff games throughout,” said Witten at the end of the season, who had 63 catches for 529 yards and fours touchdowns this year. “I knew for this to be successful, it’s kind of like a quarterback. You’ve got to win games.
“But I’m proud of the way I’ve played. Yeah, 100%, I’ve got conviction on it was the right thing to do and proud of the way I’ve gone about it.”
At the time, Witten wouldn’t entertain questions of whether he was done playing, although the 37-year-old did say he planned to get into coaching once he retired for good. Witten also said he wanted to coach in the NFL. There’s been plenty of talk of him taking the college route at his alma mater, Tennessee.
“I think it will be a pretty quick decision,” Witten said. “If I allowed my mind to start going to that route, I wouldn’t be doing myself any justice or really this football team. When I made that decision, I knew I had to dive into this thing.”
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