Dez Bryant can picture Jason Witten coaching the Dallas Cowboys. This weekend, Witten has a more immediate assignment, as Oklahoma just handed him its offense, and his first game as interim coordinator is on the road against Florida.
The timing makes Bryant's endorsement especially interesting. Witten has spent the years since his retirement building a coaching résumé that started at a Texas high school. A look back at those choices offers a clearer picture of how he got here than the latest round of Cowboys speculation.
Witten's interest in coaching dates back to his playing career. According to Roundtable Sports' Kyler Fox, who recapped comments from Cowboys analyst Mike Fisher , part of the reason Witten joined Jon Gruden's Las Vegas Raiders in 2020 was to get an up-close look at how an NFL coaching staff operates. That season proved to be his last as a player.
"Witten reportedly turned down an NFL tight ends coaching opportunity before accepting the Oklahoma job," Fox wrote. "He had opportunities to advance his career elsewhere. He chose his own path. One of his dreams, he once intimated to our Mike Fisher, was to coach at his alma mater, Tennessee. But maybe his career is suddenly on a faster track to an even bigger job."
Fox added, "His history suggests Witten has been considerably more deliberate about his coaching future than the latest Dallas speculation might lead people to believe."
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After retiring, Witten moved into coaching at Liberty Christian School in Argyle, Texas, where he spent five seasons as head coach. Liberty Christian won back-to-back state championships in 2023 and 2024, with the second marking the school's first title in TAPPS Division I.
Oklahoma hired Witten to coach tight ends in January, giving him his first role on Brent Venables' staff. By the time Venables replaced offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle on Monday, Oklahoma's tight ends had combined for five touchdown catches through eight games after recording just one all of last season.
Venables then named Witten interim coordinator, expanding his responsibilities from one position group to the entire offense, with the Sooners sitting at 4-4.
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Bryant spent eight seasons playing alongside Witten in Dallas. He made his pitch conditional on a change in Dallas, then made his preference clear.
"Jason Witten should be the next head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. I can see it..and I'd love that," Bryant wrote .
The endorsement from Bryant came after Dallas fell to 3–5 with a 33–30 overtime loss to Arizona. The Cowboys, whose defense ranks last on PFN's Defense Impact Metric , blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead, adding to the pressure on Brian Schottenheimer. Jerry Jones said after the loss that he did not see himself making an in-season coaching change.
Bryant knows what Witten brought to the Cowboys' locker room. Venables is about to learn what Witten brings to an offense when he has to make calls for every position, manage a game from series to series, and adjust when the first plan stalls. Those are responsibilities Witten took on as a high school head coach, and Saturday gives him a chance to handle them against an SEC opponent.
Dallas has a head coach. Oklahoma has a new play caller. For anyone curious about the coach Witten is becoming, his work against Florida will say more than another round of speculation about Jerry Jones.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network .
