ESPN reportedly rolling with Jason Witte

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There has been plenty of criticism over the three-man booth of Joe Te sitore, Jason Witten and Booger McFarland used all season long for "Monday Night Football," but ESPN is going to reportedly run the same group back for the 2019 season.In a lengthy feature on The Athletic, Lindsay Jones spent several days shadowing the trio and the broadcast setup as it prepared for the Vikings-Seahawks game last week. Unsurprisingly, (there is a subscription required).According to Jones, the plan is to keep the three-man booth in play for the long haul. From the article:But it also showed the commitment ESPN has  Matt Joyce Jersey made to this three-man booth, not just for the rest of 2018, but into the future. Like it or not NFL fans, you should expect to see and hear this trio next season.Witten also described the group as a "long-term plan" himself and Jones says she heard from executives at the and at ESPN that 2018 was always expected to be a "transition year."Fourteen games into their first season together, the broadcasters, producers and NFL executives all told that they understood from the start that 2018 would be a transition year for Monday Night Football.In other words, despite the criticism -- some Rollie Fingers Jersey  of which was included in Jones' article, including a tweet of mine, yay I'm famous, sorry in advance Jason Witten -- the group will be back.  This is an experimental approach for ESPN. Jon Gruden left the booth to coach the Raiders. Everyone was on board with Gruden because he'd been there so long, even if some things he did bothered people. The criticism Gruden received when he took the job faded after a year or so. People just got used to it. More NFL But going from Mike Tirico/Sean Terry Steinbach Jersey  McDonough (the latter of whom was ripped when he took over too) and Gruden to Joe Te sitore (an extremely enthusiastic voice who came from college) and Witten (new to this, admittedly needs more practice in front of the camera) and Booger was always going to be a transition. ESPN is operating with two guys in the booth and one guy on a mobile platform on the sideline.Three-man booths are tough anyway, but if you put the three men in separate places,  Santiago Casilla Jersey it's going to be impo sible to pull off seamle sly. It shouldn't be a surprise at all to see this group struggle. There have been, as Jones chronicles, some good moments. You can feel the natural energy in random spurts, but too often everyone is trying to "play their part" in a traditional sense and it comes off as forced.One interesting note from Jones' piece was the moment when Bobby Wagner blocked a Vikings field goal. There was ma s confusion in terms of whether he should be flagged and what the officials would do. They later picked up the flag. But Witten was in the booth mouthing "leverage" to his teammates. That's a spot he's just got to grab the mic and take over -- explaining what's happening ahead of everyone else figuring it out is exactly how you  Andrew Triggs Jersey end up drawing praise from the Twitter police and average fans out there watching.  If you're expecting to see le s of Witten in 2019, well, don't. According to ESPN executives, Witten will be dotted all over the various NFL talk shows throughout the offseason in order to get him more practice. That's something they wish they'd done prior to the season, and it might have actually led to the broadcasts being better. Heck, put Witten and Booger on a show together and see how it pans out.Whatever the case, we're going to see more of this crew in the foreseeable future and probably even for the long haul.