Where’s Witten?
Posted on 22. Oct, 2009 by Jesse in Articles
At the beginning of the 2009 season many NFL experts would have agreed that Cowboys TE Jason Witten was one of the best players in the league at his position. Witten doesn’t have blazing speed, but he plays in a great system, has fantastic hands, and was supposedly the apple of Tony Romo’s eye. Witten was even supposed to see an uptick in production this year as Romo’s long-time top option, Terrell Owens, had relocated from America’s team to “North America’s Team.”
Well, through six weeks of NFL action, Witten has failed to meet expectations in a major way. Dude has scored just one TD, and that seems inexplicable.
So far this year Witten is averaging a paltry 51 yards per game. When you compare that to the 65.5 yards per game J-dub averaged in 2007-08, you see an immediate dropoff. We typically think that Witten is the kind of TE that can go off for big yardage, but that trend has been reversing of late. Witten has just one 100-yard performance in his last 19 games. Surprising? Yes. But why?
Witten is averaging a career-low 9.3 yards per catch this season, which is more than two yards less than his career average, so obviously the Cowboys aren’t focusing on getting him downfield. Unfortunately, the club isn’t targeting Witten in the red zone lately either as evidenced by his lack of TD-producing prowess. I’m worried this trend may not change any time soon either, as defenses continue to crowd the line and double-cover Witten. This often forces Tony Romo into bad throws, which only exacerbates the problem.
I know Jason is a talented guy, and I have to believe that he’s going to come around at some point in the future. Still, Miles Austin might be the most important part of this equation. If Austin can again cause defenses to put more focus downfield, Witten could again find open holes underneath. Until that happens though, don’t be surprised if Jason Witten continues to be harder to find than Waldo.
