Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten suffered a lacerated spleen in the preseason opener against the Oakland Raiders on Monday Night Football.
Head coach Jason Garrett informed the media of the news on Wednesday raising vast concerns for the Cowboys offense should Witten be forced to miss time in the regular season. As of now, Witten must be as “inactive as possible” and the team hopes to have him back in time for the season opener on September 5th vs. the New York Giants.
“He has to be very still and idle for the next week to 10 days, so you won’t see him out here on the practice field,” Garrett said, via the New York Times. “He won’t play in the game this week or next week. We’ve just got to make sure he heals as well as possible, as quickly as possible.”
The nine-year veteran has missed just one game in his NFL career due to a broken jaw he suffered during his rookie season.
Since that time, Witten has evolved into one of the game’s top tight ends and quarterback Tony Romo’s primary target in the passing game. He has eclipse 1,000 yards receiving in three of the last five seasons while being selected to the Pro Bowl seven times.
Garrett told reporters that Witten would be reassessed in a week.
Since 2009, Romo and Witten have combined for the fourth-best completion percentage between quarterback-and-tight end duos connecting on 72.3 percent of pass attempts, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
Losing Witten for a substantial amount of time would be detrimental to the Cowboys’ plans for this upcoming season. As long as Witten can be careful and keep healthy, though, he should be back and ready to go once the season gets underway in New York.
Louis Musto covers the NFC East, NFL in general and pop culture at GridironGrit.com. Follow @LouisMusto and @GridironGrit on Twitter!
