ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” will return to a two-man booth when it kicks off its 50th season later this year.The network announced Wednesday that Joe Tessitore will be back doing play-by-play while Booger McFarland moves up to the booth after being a field-level analyst.ESPN also announced that Lisa Salters will return for an eighth season as the sideline reporter after signing a multiyear extension.Stephanie Druley
Dallas Cowboys Marcus Martin Jersey , ESPN’s executive vice president for event and studio production, said the chemistry between Tessitore and McFarland was the biggest reason for moving McFarland upstairs. Before “Monday Night Football”, the two worked together when ESPN launched the SEC Network and had them on its Saturday pregame show.“They have become close friends and they had a good first season (last year),” Druley said. “Booger has a big personality and does a good job of analyzing all sides.”McFarland, who played nine seasons in the NFL for Indianapolis and Tampa Bay, is the only former defensive player to be the lead analyst on a network’s top team. He said in a statement that he is happy for the opportunity to be in the booth and to continue working with Tessitore and Salters.“We have a great slate of games and I look forward to starting our journey in Louisiana, where I was born and raised, with the Texans-Saints game in early September,” McFarland said.Jason Witten, who was in the booth last season
White Robert Newhouse Jersey , decided in February to end his retirement and return to the Dallas Cowboys. Druley said ESPN reached out to Peyton Manning to gage his interest, but nothing further resulted.“Monday Night Football” had a three-man booth for all but 12 of its first 49 seasons. The first time the series had a two-man booth was 1986 with Al Michaels and Frank Gifford. Other two-man booths featured Michaels and Boomer Esiason (1999), Michaels and John Madden (2002-05), Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden (2012-15) and Sean McDonough and Gruden (2016-17).“I am especially happy for Booger, whose unique talent and uncommon perspective will now be showcased even more prominently in his new role,” Tessitore said in a statement. “With Lisa and the addition of Super Bowl referee John Parry (as a rules analyst), our goal is simple: serve the fan by documenting the event and celebrating the game as best we can.”There was some criticism last year that Salters’ role was decreased with McFarland also being on the field, but Druley said the network went to her more than expected.“It continues to be my privilege to be a part of the MNF team,” Salters said in a statement. “Tess and Booger are both a pleasure to work with — and will prove to be the perfect duo to lead us forward.” Thursday brought us the news that wasn’t really news because it has been common knowledge for a week or so now, but Kellen Moore was officially named the Cowboys’ new offensive coordinator and Jon Kitna was announced as the new quarterbacks coach. Moore
Robert Newhouse Jersey 2019 , who will turn 30 this summer, seems likely to call the plays, although he will have input from tight ends coach Doug Nussmeier, Kitna, and Jason Garrett, and probably a little from Dak Prescott.But while everyone was obsessing over the official announcement, other news broke that the Cowboys will not extend Garrett’s contract despite early reports saying otherwise. That means that Garrett will essentially be coaching for his job in 2019, and if he doesn’t do enough to earn an extension, Jerry Jones will let the coach’s contract expire at the conclusion of the 2019 season. This puts a lot of pressure on everyone in Dallas, but most notably Garrett and Moore. The Cowboys did a tremendous job of overcoming a terrible 3-5 start and making the playoffs in 2018
White Daryl Johnston Jersey , and they did so with a defense that kept them in almost every game. However, the offense was the stuff of nightmares, and it had to give a little extra sting as the organization watched the top four offenses in the NFL reach the conference championship games while Dallas extended their conference championship game drought to 23 years. The general perception around this team was that the underwhelming and inefficient offense is what held them back. It obviously wasn’t the defense, and the fact that the team didn’t just spiral out of control after starting 3-5 reflects on Garrett’s grasp on the locker room. But with Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, and Amari Cooper on that offense, many were left scratching their heads as to why that unit wasn’t more productive. And it seems as if Dallas found their culprit to blame: offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, whose once-successful offense became too bland and predictable. Garrett made the decision to let Linehan go, and the pressure was on him to find someone who could unlock the secret to making this offense elite again. At one point, it seemed as if Jerry Jones had his eye on someone from the remaining playoff teams: However
Daryl Johnston Jersey 2019 , it became very clear that Garrett was looking more so at an in-house guy. Moore and Nussmeier became the two hot names. It seems that Garrett’s assessment of the Cowboys offense was that the scheme and philosophy is fine, but that the biggest change was just someone who is more creative with the way they call plays. And that led to Moore. In a way, it’s as if Garrett is betting on himself, as Dallas will still use the same variation of the Air Coryell that they’ve been running since Garrett came to the team in 2007. And it’s hard to fault anyone for betting on themselves. After all, Garrett has had some pretty good success in the past. Perhaps the Joneses are less inclined to fully believe in Garrett after the way they’ve seen this offense perform in the last year and a half. And that is probably the reason that they’re declining to extend Garrett’s contract at this time. They likely see two possible outcomes. One is Garrett ends up being right and Moore brings the innovation and creativity in calling plays that was lacking, and the Cowboys field a dynamic offense that leads to Garrett getting a big fat contract extension. The second is it becomes apparent that the Cowboys are using a scheme that fails to adapt to their personnel and exploit defenses in the way that the Andy Reid’s and Sean McVay’s of the NFL are doing, in which case Dallas can move in a new direction at head coach without having to pay any sort of buyout. But hey, no pressure Kellen.