Cowboys coaching search: Why Jason Witten might make sense for Dallas in this moment

We are living in a world where Jason Witten is apparently a real candidate to be the next Dallas Cowboys coach.

The Dallas Cowboys came literally hours short of starting the 2024 season with a seemingly unprecedented ultimatum towards their future. Find the elusive success in the postseason that’s escaped them since 1996, or both head coach Mike McCarthy’s and quarterback Dak Prescott’s contracts would expire, leaving the option to start all over at the two most important positions on the team right in front of Jerry Jones and the front office. Instead, Prescott was given the richest contract in NFL history just prior to beating the Cleveland Browns in week one. This would be be one of just three wins in eight starts for Prescott, who was lost for the season after being injured against the Atlanta Falcons. The Cowboys finished 7-10 and a distant third to two division rivals still playing into the Divisional playoffs with the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders.

On Monday though, still just eight days removed from their last game of the year, the Cowboys completed the journey of turning Prescott from an offseason bargaining chip to fortifying his place in the franchise’s new direction forward even more. Dallas chose to move on from head coach Mike McCarthy at the end of his contract, and with his departure most of his assistants who were also on expiring deals, including defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, are expected to be on the way out as well. The Cowboys are looking for an entirely fresh start from a coaching perspective, but the easiest non-negotiable thing that will be mandatory for the next head coach is working with Prescott still in place as the franchise quarterback.

The same expectation was put on McCarthy to work with Prescott, which he did for five seasons, the first three of which he kept offensive coordinator Kellen Moore in place. McCarthy took over play-calling in 2023, and his two seasons as the voice in the QBs helmet offered the types of highs and lows the Cowboys chose to move on from in search of more consistency, and a sense of urgency to maximize Prescott’s talent on this new contract.

In typical Dallas Cowboys fashion, the organization was slightly late to join the head coaching search game by letting McCarthy’s status drag on a bit. The Cowboys now join the Bears, Saints, Jets, Jaguars, and Raiders as franchises looking for their next head coaches. Only the Patriots job has come off the board so far, with a reunion everyone in the football world saw coming between former Patriot Mike Vrabel and New England. The other five teams still open all have completed or scheduled at least four interviews while the Cowboys are just getting started casting their net. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has already talked with the Bears and Jaguars and is scheduled to interview with the Raiders. Considered the top candidate by many, at least for a team like the Cowboys with a QB already in place, Johnson was also in consideration by the Patriots before hiring Vrabel.

The Cowboys very initial search so far has brought up the names of two former players, both polarizing figures helping draw the constant attention the Cowboys seek towards them. They are Colorado head coach Deion Sanders and, a bit more obscurely, Jason Witten.

At a point in time for the franchise where it has become more popular for former players like Troy Aikman to put the team down as opposed to lifting them up, saying things in-season like the Cowboys offense runs “terrible routes” and now on Monday that their head coaching vacancy “isn’t coveted”, there is validity to bringing in two successful former players to at very least interview for the position.

Part of the Cowboys decision to move on from McCarthy may have been about overrating the culture and locker room aspects of his coaching ability, things that take a backseat on game days to calling plays which McCarthy did ineffectively in his final season. This is not at all to say that these qualities in a prospective head coach don’t matter, especially for the Cowboys as currently constructed with Jones in place as GM and owner. If the ultimate goal is still to win football games though, the Cowboys could do better than McCarthy, and are now wading into the waters of finding out how much better they can actually do without much of a life preserver. They are swimming at their own risk in the coaching free agency pool, unable to put their feet on the ground and talk to candidates like Johnson, Aaron Glenn, Kellen Moore, or Kliff Kingsbury until their respective seasons end.

In the interim period before the Cowboys can consider some of these other coaching candidates, the idea of hiring a coach like Jason Witten should be embraced – or at very least received with a sense of openness – by the fanbase. It is the type of risk the organization has been averse to for decades, and one way or another could help them get closer on the ladder towards the “escape hatch” we mentioned with both McCarthy and Prescott from the start of this past fruitless season. Assuming Witten would not call plays, the Cowboys would have their fourth play caller for Prescott in ten seasons.

As opposed to the flimsy way in which McCarthy talked about his culture-building only at times it suited him, going from a coach embracing championship expectations upon his hiring in 2020 to talking about his desire to continue “putting a program in place” at the podium following a seven-win season that fell way short of the playoffs, the Cowboys would get this in a more natural way with Witten.

One of the most respected former Cowboys of multiple generations, Witten is also one of the most notable faces of the unfortunate way the Cowboys have wasted Hall of Fame level talent without playoff success for years. Should he be given the chance to speak on wanting to change this perception in Dallas, it would come from a genuine place that very few former players or coaches anywhere could relate to. No matter who his QB was, Witten was always a reliable target with an advanced understanding of the defense in front of him and how to beat them.

It may be hard to remember specific, non-game related moments of Jason Garrett’s tenure as head coach, but one of the absolute most notable was talking about Witten’s presentation to the team breaking down the “Y Option” route he made a living on at Witten’s retirement press conference. Garrett called it “simply the greatest presentation he’s ever seen in football”. One only has to consider Garrett’s experience specific to the Cowboys, as a player and coach, and leave out everything else which includes ongoing work as a TV analyst to grasp how profound a compliment this is from Garrett to Witten.

Garrett may not have any current influence on who the next head coach of the Cowboys will be, as Dallas looks for their third head coach since 2011 with Garrett occupying nine of those years as the full-time head coach. Jerry Jones certainly does have this influence, and he too has echoed some of the same sentiment about not only Witten as a person and former player, but going a step further to previously discuss his prospects as a future coach.

Jones brought up Witten unprompted while answering a question about former Cowboy Dan Campbell and the immediate success he’s had as head coach of the Lions. Campbell is also a tremendous current example of a head coach relieved of any game day play-calling duties, deferring to two of the hottest head coach candidates as his current coordinators in Johnson and DC Aaron Glenn. The Cowboys would have to implement something similar with Witten, surrounding him with top assistants and letting him flourish in other roles both in game preparation and management.

Witten would be making the jump from a high school head coach to the NFL, which is a bit like going from a Little Tikes car in a driveway to a Formula 1 machine on the streets of Monaco. The risk the Cowboys would be taking in this hire would help turn a narrative seen as a negative when it comes to Jones and his relation to head coaches, into potentially more of a positive. Jones gave Garrett a decade-long leash without playoff success, and cut this time in half for McCarthy after also failing to get out of the Divisional Round. Finding the right balance between patience with a coaching staff and knowing when it’s time for a change is not something many NFL teams can pride themselves on getting right with remarkable accuracy, but the perception of Jones giving Witten time to grow into being a NFL coach for the first time has a different feel than letting a more experienced coach take the reigns for a long period of time.

Right now, the allure of going into a season with Witten as an unknown coaching commodity beats the alternative the Cowboys just dragged themselves through for 17 games, knowing exactly who they were by their own design – a bad, ill-prepared, directionless football team. Hiring Witten is obviously far from the only option for the Cowboys to feel like they’re heading in the right direction again, but it is one of the few possibilities with merit this early into a search process handcuffed by the ongoing playoffs for a few more weeks.

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Jones is still involved heavily in the day-to-day operations of the team on game weeks as well, something that from afar has been noted as a potential detriment to head coaches looking to do things their way. This may have been the case under McCarthy, interested in prolonging his time with the organization above all else, but putting Jones and Witten together in a room with the former tight end having the space to tell it like it is about what needs to be done is a fascinating dynamic when it comes to Jones actually listening. Tony Romo may have been Jones’ “biggest regret” when it comes to former players he didn’t win a championship with, but Witten – nicknamed Romo’s “BFF” for years – should be considered something of a close second.

As for the rest of the “other stuff” as it’s called when it comes to how a Cowboys HC has to navigate a relationship with Jerry and do so in the national spotlight, it all may not be going away anytime too soon, but a head coach without play-calling duties being asked to navigate it may be the ideal way to handle it.

If the upside of what the Cowboys are getting in Jason Witten is their own Dan Campbell, the downside is worth noting as well. The possibility they also end up with the next Antonio Peirce or Jeff Saturday as former players in over their heads as coaches is on the table. For a team desperately trying to reclaim championship glory, with a rapidly growing amount of fans that know them more for playoff failures than anything close to hoisting the Lombardi trophy, this boom or bust potential as they navigate the rest of Prescott’s contract could be for the best.

The Cowboys have too often fallen into the trap of feeling like they are set at one position or another thanks to a small sample size of games played or relying on players with the arrow pointing up to always stay that way. As opposed to still trying to fit the square peg into a round hole when looking to make this current roster a Super Bowl one, even more layers may need to be peeled back before Dallas gets there, and realizing this under the guidance of a man that’s never going to say the wrong thing or embarass the proud organization along the way is a possibility.

Prescott himself had advocated for McCarthy to return, forging a strong connection to the offensive-minded head coach the same way he did with Garrett. To say two former teammates in Prescott and Witten can also find this connection is not a stretch at all. The upside of Jason Witten as a head coach on game days may also be in an area the Cowboys have been sorely lacking in, which is their difficulty level in being scouted by opponents. Opponents have had it too easy putting the Cowboys into a box and knowing what they are going to do in game situations for far too long now, but hiring a coach with only high school experience to date could change that. Not only would teams on the Cowboys schedule have to do some guessing when it comes to what Witten has in the game plan, but they could be dealing with two new coordinators on both sides of the ball for Dallas in 2025 and beyond as well.

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Like anything in professional football, the process matters just as much as the results. Should Jason Witten actually be the next head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, how they arrive there will be of critical importance. Will the Cowboys at least get a chance to talk to Ben Johnson or Aaron Glenn of the Lions? Will they look to have an offensive coordinator in place before going the route of hiring a coach like Witten? Is negotiating a new deal with Mike Zimmer as defensive coordinator still on the table? This entire process will be put under a microscope to allow the Cowboys to ultimately do what they do best, stay relevant even when there are no games to be played.

At this exact moment, there is an argument to be made that the Cowboys are the most talked about NFC East team in the aftermath of the McCarthy news and immediate speculation about former players like Witten and Sanders considering the job. The right head coach may say this is for all the wrong reasons, as Dallas stays relevant in the news cycle but the Eagles and Commanders stay relevant on a quest for the Super Bowl. With Witten being near the forefront of players deserving of a Super Bowl in his playing career without one after 15 years with the Cowboys and two with the Raiders, he is very possibly the right voice to relay this message to Jerry Jones and the Dallas front office.

Imagine living in a world where Jason Witten is the head coach of a Dak Prescott led team with Tony Romo on the call for CBS?