The Dallas Cowboys sit at 3-5 after letting a 24-10 fourth-quarter lead slip away in Sunday's 33-30 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
With Brian Schottenheimer's second season as head coach off to that start, former Cowboy Dez Bryant has already put forward a name for the job should Jerry Jones decide to make a change. Bryant's pick is his former teammate Jason Witten, who took over as Oklahoma's interim offensive coordinator this week.
But Cowboys analyst Tom Downey wanted no part of the idea, even with Witten's deep ties to the franchise, and rejected Bryant's pitch outright Thursday morning.
Bryant made his case earlier this week: "I'm just saying… if anything were to happen in Dallas… Jason Witten should be the next head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. I can see it… and I'd love that."
The Cowboys drafted Witten 69th overall in the third round in 2003, and he spent 16 of his 17 NFL seasons in Dallas and finished his career with 11 Pro Bowl selections, two first-team All-Pro nods, and two second-team All-Pro honors.
Downey, though, gave the idea of Witten as Dallas' next head coach a flat no: "He absolutely should not be."
Witten's coaching career began in 2021, when he took over at Liberty Christian School in Argyle, Texas. He spent five seasons there and won Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools state championships in 2023 and 2024 before joining Oklahoma as its tight ends coach in January.
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His role there grew Monday, when Brent Venables fired offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and named Witten interim offensive coordinator and play-caller for the rest of the season, with the Sooners at 4-4 and ranking second-worst in the SEC in both yards per game and touchdowns through eight games.
"My responsibility is to the whole team and what I believe is best for us right now. We need a change," Venables said in a statement. It is Witten's first time running an offense at the college level, and he has never been an NFL head coach or coordinator.
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After responding to Bryant, Downey added in a reply to one fan , "2037 is very different than 2027!" The reply suggested Downey's objection was more about Witten's readiness for 2027 than the possibility of him becoming an NFL head coach later in his career.
Jones has made only one in-season head-coaching change in his 37 years as owner, replacing Wade Phillips with Jason Garrett when the Cowboys were 1-7 in 2010, and that decision came up again when he spoke to reporters after Sunday's game: "I made a change, and I don't want to mention it because I'm not proud of it. But I made a change with Wade Phillips there in the middle of the season, and I don't see that here."
Sunday's loss was the first of its kind at home for Dallas, which had gone 202-0-1 at home when leading by at least 14 points in the fourth quarter. It also tied the franchise's largest fourth-quarter lead ever let get away.
The Cardinals ran for 202 yards on Sunday. Pro Football Network's NFL team defense Impact Grade has Dallas last in the league this season at 60.6, in Christian Parker's first year running the defense after the team fired coordinator Matt Eberflus in January.
Until Jones changes course, Bryant's pitch stays a hypothetical, and Witten's first chance to show what he can do as Oklahoma's play-caller comes Saturday, when Oklahoma visits AP No. 25 Florida.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network .
