On Thursday, Jason Witten announced that he’s ending his retirement and plans to rejoin the Cowboys for the 2019 season.
“The fire inside of me to compete and play this game is just burning too strong,” Witten said in a statement. “This team has a great group of rising young stars, and I want to help them make a run at a championship. This was completely my decision, and I am very comfortable with it. I’m looking forward to getting back in the dirt.”
- According to Ian Rapoport, the Cowboys will pay Witten roughly $5 million to come out for retirement.
- Adam Schefter reports that Witten receives a one-year, $3.5 million contract from the Cowboys, which implies there are incentives available.
A few weeks ago, Witten admitted that he “missed the heck out of playing” but the idea of him returning to the Cowboys was never a serious option.
“It would have been hard to do that. In season, the challenge of that,” Witten said, via Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Those guys did that work. They deserve what they had last year. They put in the time. They were 3-5. They battled back. For me that is where the sense of accomplishment comes from, not catching a pass on 3rd and 7. It’s all the work that goes into that that motivates me that I take gratification from. It’s doing all the work to get there, not just to come in. That wouldn’t have been right to come back in the middle of that even in the midst of wanting to be part of a playoff run or much I see myself pulling for them. That wouldn’t have been a real possibility.”
Reports from last year mentioned that Witten had been in contact with the Cowboys about possibly rejoining the team. However, the Cowboys publicly downplayed the report at the time.
The Cowboys placed Witten on the reserve/retired list, so they still hold his rights.
Witten, 36, is a former third-round pick of the Cowboys back in 2003. He was in the second year of his five-year, $29.6 million contract and set to make a base salary of $5.75 million for the 2018 season when he announced his retirement from the NFL back in May of last year.
ESPN later hired Witten as a broadcast analyst for “Monday Night Football.”
In 2017, Witten appeared in 16 games for the Cowboys and caught 63 passes for 560 yards receiving and five touchdowns.
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