CHANGING PLANS
Cowboys' Witten reportedly to retire, pursue gig on Monday Night Football
SportsMap staff
Apr 27, 2018, 3:52 pm
Jason Witten might be saying goodbye to football. Wikipedia
The Dallas Cowboys are in the national spotlight (as usual) this week, hosting the NFL Draft. The team, the city and Jerry Jones are all the talk of the NFL.
Leave it to the Cowboys to upstage themselves.
Longtime Cowboy tight end Jason Witten reportedly will retire and become lead analyst on Monday Night Football, replacing Jon Gruden, who left to take over as coach of the Oakland Raiders. The report says it is not official, but all indications are Witten’s football career is over.
Witten, who turns 36 a week from Sunday, will have played 15 years in the NFL. He recently had stated he planned to play “until he was 40.” Apparently those plans changed when the Monday Night Football gig became available.
If the reports are true, Witten ends his likely Hall of Fame career as the Cowboys all-time leader in receptions (1,152), receiving yards (12,448), games played (239) and third in touchdowns (68). He was selected to 11 Pro Bowls and is fourth all-time in receiving yards in the NFL, second all-time amond tight ends.
That it would happen during the draft at least allows the Cowboys to address the position over the next two days. On Friday, they selected Boise State linebacker Leighton Vander Esch with their first-round pick.
If Witten is leaving, it will represent yet another big name departing during what is clearly a transition time for the franchise. Last year, Tony Romo retired to the broadcast booth. Recently the Cowboys cut longtime star receiver Dez Bryant. And Witten is the most accomplished of them all. It’s clear that this is now Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliot’s team.
The draft will continue in Dallas over the next two days, but in true Cowboys fashion, it will take a back seat to an even bigger story involving the team: the retirement of an all-time great.
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It’s May 1, and the Astros are turning heads—but not for the reasons anyone expected. Their resurgence, driven not by stars like Yordan Alvarez or Christian Walker, but by a cast of less-heralded names, is writing a strange and telling early-season story.
Christian Walker, brought in to add middle-of-the-order thump, has yet to resemble the feared hitter he was in Arizona. Forget the narrative of a slow starter—he’s never looked like this in April. Through March and April of 2025, he’s slashing a worrying .196/.277/.355 with a .632 OPS. Compare that to the same stretch in 2024, when he posted a .283 average, .496 slug, and a robust .890 OPS, and it becomes clear: this is something more than rust. Even in 2023, his April numbers (.248/.714 OPS) looked steadier.
What’s more troubling than the overall dip is when it’s happening. Walker is faltering in the biggest moments. With runners in scoring position, he’s hitting just .143 over 33 plate appearances, including 15 strikeouts. The struggles get even more glaring with two outs—.125 average, .188 slugging, and a .451 OPS in 19 such plate appearances. In “late and close” situations, when the pressure’s highest, he’s practically disappeared: 1-for-18 with a .056 average and a .167 OPS.
His patience has waned (only 9 walks so far, compared to 20 by this time last year), and for now, his presence in the lineup feels more like a placeholder than a pillar.
The contrast couldn’t be clearer when you look at José Altuve—long the engine of this franchise—who, in 2024, delivered in the moments Walker is now missing. With two outs and runners in scoring position, Altuve hit .275 with an .888 OPS. In late and close situations, he thrived with a .314 average and .854 OPS. That kind of situational excellence is missing from this 2025 squad—but someone else may yet step into that role.
And yet—the Astros are winning. Not because of Walker, but in spite of him.
Houston’s offense, in general, hasn’t lit up the leaderboard. Their team OPS ranks 23rd (.667), their slugging 25th (.357), and they sit just 22nd in runs scored (117). They’re 26th in doubles, a rare place for a team built on gap-to-gap damage.
But where there’s been light, it hasn’t come from the usual spots. Jeremy Peña, often overshadowed in a lineup full of stars, now boasts the team’s highest OPS at .791 (Isaac Paredes is second in OPS) and is flourishing in his new role as the leadoff hitter. Peña’s balance of speed, contact, aggression, and timely power has given Houston a surprising tone-setter at the top.
Even more surprising: four Astros currently have more home runs than Yordan Alvarez.
And then there’s the pitching—Houston’s anchor. The rotation and bullpen have been elite, ranking 5th in ERA (3.23), 1st in WHIP (1.08), and 4th in batting average against (.212). In a season where offense is lagging and clutch hits are rare, the arms have made all the difference.
For now, it’s the unexpected contributors keeping Houston afloat. Peña’s emergence. A rock-solid pitching staff. Role players stepping up in quiet but crucial ways. They’re not dominating, but they’re grinding—and in a sluggish AL West, that may be enough.
Walker still has time to find his swing. He showed some signs of life against Toronto and Detroit. If he does, the Astros could become dangerous. If he doesn’t, the turnaround we’re witnessing will be credited to a new cast of unlikely faces. And maybe, that’s the story that needed to be written.
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