Fantasy Football 2019: Jason Witten Comes Out Of Retirement

Jason Witten will leave the announce booth and rejoin the Cowboys. How does his return to the field impact fantasy football?

The tight end player pool just got a little bigger after the news on Thursday afternoon. ESPN announcer Jason Witten announced he will come out of retirement and re-join the Dallas Cowboys for the 2019 season. What fantasy football impact will his return to the Cowboys lineup have?

Witten last played in 2017 and was on the field for all 16 games. He finished with 63 receptions, 560 yards and five touchdowns. Witten finished no worse than 12th in each of those categories. At 35 years old, Witten was still able to perform at a good enough level to be in the starting lineup.

In his absence, the Cowboys had to mix-and-match their starting tight end throughout the season. The Cowboys played four different tight ends last year. Their combined stats were 68 receptions, 710 yards and four touchdowns. That’s not much better than Witten was the year before.

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According to his deal, Witten will play just 25 snaps per game. That will something similar to what Antonio Gates did in 2018.

Gates averaged 22.8 snaps per game in playing 36.6 percent of the plays. He finished 28 catches, 333 yards and two touchdowns.

I think Witten will have a better season than that. I have a feeling that he’ll end up playing a lot more than 25 snaps per game.

With the group of tight ends the Cowboys have on the roster, Witten may be better than at least two of them. Geoff Swaim and Blake Jarwin will still have a role in the offense.

I think the addition will help Dak Prescott, especially on short down situations. The Cowboys don’t have a deep receiving corps.

The addition of Amari Cooper definitely helped but outside of him, it’s a shallow depth chart. Allen Hurns didn’t put up great numbers. Terrance Williams is gone from the team. Cole Beasley will annoy defenders in the middle of the field.

I don’t think he’ll make it into my Fantasy Football top-20 tight ends this season unless he has a big first couple of weeks. With the Cowboys offense, that is a possibility. He’s just another weapon for Prescott as they try to make it back to the playoffs.