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Jason Witten: Cowboys' window is now
Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer
OXNARD, Calif. -- Jason Witten is tired of talking about opening or closing windows around the Dallas Cowboys.
With three straight 8-8 finishes from 2011-13, the window was closing. With their 12-4 finish in 2014, it was opening. And then last season 4-12 finish made it look like it was closing again.
Witten turned 34 in May. He is entering his 14th season.
“Hey, the window is now,” Witten said. “That’s clear. You’ve been asking me that for five years. Look, I feel great and ready to go. The window is now and it’s that way for the entire organization. I think that’s great to have that approach. The reality of it is 31 other teams have the same goals and expectations, and we’re going to earn it by the way we prepare and how we go to work, and I think we showed that this offseason back in April and it carried over even (Saturday) into the first walkthrough.”
In February, Witten saw his good friend and former teammate, DeMarcus Ware, win a Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos.
“We were teammates for a long time and great to see a teammate and a buddy achieve that goal and how hard he’s worked, what he’s done to get to that point,” Witten said. “I’m proud of him and a little jealous, but you know what, a lot of sacrifice and a great team he was on and I know that was a special time in his life.”
As much as Witten has confidence Dallas can return to the playoffs in 2016 and perhaps contend for a Super Bowl, he knows little comes from talk.
“We didn’t meet expectations and there’s a lot of different ways you can say it with injuries and things that happened, but the collective approach right now is that we have a lot of work to do and we need to get to work with the way we approach it,” Witten said. “It’s a good group of guys, I think we’ve had a great offseason and now we’re just focusing on developing over the next three weeks. I think it’s that simple, it really is. It’s Year 14 for me and I think that’s the way you have to approach it. I said at the end of minicamp you’ve got to go back to Stage 1 and start from the beginning and evaluate everything and then go work your tails off.”
Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer
OXNARD, Calif. -- Jason Witten is tired of talking about opening or closing windows around the Dallas Cowboys.
With three straight 8-8 finishes from 2011-13, the window was closing. With their 12-4 finish in 2014, it was opening. And then last season 4-12 finish made it look like it was closing again.
Witten turned 34 in May. He is entering his 14th season.
“Hey, the window is now,” Witten said. “That’s clear. You’ve been asking me that for five years. Look, I feel great and ready to go. The window is now and it’s that way for the entire organization. I think that’s great to have that approach. The reality of it is 31 other teams have the same goals and expectations, and we’re going to earn it by the way we prepare and how we go to work, and I think we showed that this offseason back in April and it carried over even (Saturday) into the first walkthrough.”
In February, Witten saw his good friend and former teammate, DeMarcus Ware, win a Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos.
“We were teammates for a long time and great to see a teammate and a buddy achieve that goal and how hard he’s worked, what he’s done to get to that point,” Witten said. “I’m proud of him and a little jealous, but you know what, a lot of sacrifice and a great team he was on and I know that was a special time in his life.”
As much as Witten has confidence Dallas can return to the playoffs in 2016 and perhaps contend for a Super Bowl, he knows little comes from talk.
“We didn’t meet expectations and there’s a lot of different ways you can say it with injuries and things that happened, but the collective approach right now is that we have a lot of work to do and we need to get to work with the way we approach it,” Witten said. “It’s a good group of guys, I think we’ve had a great offseason and now we’re just focusing on developing over the next three weeks. I think it’s that simple, it really is. It’s Year 14 for me and I think that’s the way you have to approach it. I said at the end of minicamp you’ve got to go back to Stage 1 and start from the beginning and evaluate everything and then go work your tails off.”