Jason Witten is no longer ESPN’s Monday Night Football commentator. The network doesn’t know who’s coming next.
After Witten’s surprise announcement that he will return to the Cowboys, ESPN released an announcement of its own, saying only that it will be a few weeks before the MNF team is determined.
“We thank Jason for his many contributions to Monday Night Football and ESPN over the past year and wish him continued success,” the statement said. “We have seen many former coaches and players go into broadcasting before eventually returning to the game they love, so we understand Jason’s desire to return to the Dallas Cowboys. In the coming weeks we will determine our MNF plans for the 2019 season.”
So who will replace Witten?
One simple solution would be to keep Joe Tessitore on play-by-play and move Booger McFarland from the “Boogermobile” where he worked last year and into the booth for a two-man announcing team.
Another possibility is keeping McFarland on the sideline and Tessitore in the booth, with a replacement for Witten. That replacement could come in the form of another tight end, Greg Olsen, who has toyed with the possibility of retiring from the Panthers and moving to the booth. Another option would be Matt Hasselbeck, a longtime ESPN commentator who was considered for the MNF role last year before Witten was hired.
If ESPN really wants to shake things up, it could bring in three new announcers. Beth Mowins handled play-by-play for one Monday night game last year, when ESPN ran a doubleheader in Week One, and could be considered as a replacement for Tessitore for the permanent role. Kurt Warner was reportedly the second choice behind Witten last year and could be his replacement this year. ESPN has given Louis Riddick significant air time recently and he could be a third announcer in the booth with Mowins and Warner.
And the wild card is Peyton Manning. ESPN would have loved to hire Manning last year, and FOX also tried to hire him for Thursday nights. ESPN would have to pay a lot of money to get Manning in the booth, but he could be worth it: It’s easy to envision Manning becoming the next Tony Romo, a retired quarterback who draws rave reviews for his understanding of the game. ESPN would probably allow Manning to pick whatever play-by-play announcer he’s most comfortable working with.
Whatever ESPN decides to do, it’s going to be heavily scrutinized. Just as Witten was last year. ESPN will hope whoever is in the booth in 2019 gets a better reception than Witten did.
