Despite approaching return like a rookie, Jason Witten doesn't want roommate at training camp
Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten has repeatedly said that he’s approaching his comeback season this fall as if he were a rookie again, something he’s embraced this week at the team’s mandatory minicamp.
Despite that mentality, however, there is one part of being a rookie that Witten is trying to avoid this time around.
He wants a single room at training camp.
“Hopefully I don’t have a roommate. That’s all I hope for,” Witten said Tuesday, via the Dallas Morning News. “I’m saying I’m a rookie in a lot of ways, I don’t want to be a rookie from that standpoint.”
[Join or create a 2019 Yahoo Fantasy Football league for free today]
After his 15 years with the organization — in which he became the Cowboys’ all-time receptions leader, was named a Pro Bowler 11 times and won the 2012 Walter Payton Man of the Year award — it’s highly unlikely that owner Jerry Jones would actually stick Witten with a roommate at training camp next month, even though it is his first year back after a one-year hiatus spent in the “Monday Night Football” broadcast booth.
Regardless, Witten is getting right back to work, and even hopped in with the Cowboys’ first-team offense on Tuesday at minicamp. While he looked “a little winded” at times, according to the Dallas Morning News, Witten has continued to impress.
“[Witten] loves ball, love being a part of a team,” head coach Jason Garrett said, via the Dallas Morning News. “He's jumped right back in, he's so highly respected by our coaches and by his teammates and staff members around here. He just comes to work, he comes to work and he's very committed to getting himself right physically, mentally and emotionally right to play and you see that every day in his work and it’s a real treat to have him back."
Though many in the organization marveled at the 37-year-old’s shape upon his return to OTAs last month, Witten insists he still has a long way to go before he’s ready to take the field this fall for a 16th season in the league.
So, during the six-week break between minicamp and training camp, Witten isn’t taking any time off. He’s going to keep working.
“I still have a lot of work to do, to clean up and knock some of that rust off,” Witten said, via the Dallas Morning News. “These next five or six weeks will be really important for me for what I want to accomplish and what I can bring. I know that it's still building for me.”
More from Yahoo Sports:
