Jason Witten retired after the 2017 season, but he didn’t stay away for long. He sat out 2018 but retuned to the Dallas Cowboys this past season.
“Well, I wanted to win a championship, and I just felt like there was still more in the tank that I could give,” Witten said on The Zach Gelb Show. “You never really know until you go through it, and when I was going through it, I realized, ‘Okay, there’s some more I have left in the tank.’”
Witten proved he could still play, catching 63 balls for 529 yards and four touchdowns this past season. The Cowboys, however, finished 8-8 after a 3-0 start and missed the playoffs.
There was speculation that the Cowboys quit on head coach Jason Garrett, but Witten indicated otherwise.
“I don’t think you ever quit on the head coach,” Witten said. “You can’t combine where you didn’t perform with quitting on the head coach. Everybody played hard for Jason, listened to his message and got it across. The end result didn’t work out.”
Witten, who turns 38 in May, is undecided on his NFL future.
“I’m not sure yet,” he said. “I’m just going to take it day by day. I’m leaning towards coming back and playing, but I haven’t made that official.”
Witten expects to make his decision in the next six weeks, adding, “I don’t think this thing drags into June, July and into training camp by any means.”
If Witten returns, he would play for a new head coach for the first time since 2009, as Mike McCarthy became Cowboys head coach in January.
“I like Mike,” Witten said. “I think Mike’s a good coach. I think he’s got a great opportunity. It’s a talented roster. It sounds like he was pretty active in his year off, and obviously he had a lot of success [in Green Bay].”
Garrett, meanwhile, is now the Giants offensive coordinator. Witten was asked if there was any chance of him reuniting with Garrett, albeit with Big Blue.
“We haven’t had those conversations,” Witten said. “We’ll see what happens down the road, but we haven’t had those conversations.”