AP

Cowboys tight end Jason Witten would gladly have participated in voluntary work today, but coach Jason Garrett made him take a day off.

Garrett said today that the Cowboys’ coaching staff has put together a plan for the 37-year-old Witten to ease him back into playing after taking last year off to work in the Monday Night Football booth.

“He wants to be out there,” Garrett said. “Everybody wants to be out there. But we’re the coaches, he’s the player. We ultimately decide what the plan is. We talk to a player like that. Obviously we want to give him good reasons for why we want to take a certain approach. We did this with him the last couple years of his career during training camp and I think he understands we just want him to be fresher and more productive when he is out there.”

Witten isn’t a player who has any problems with being ready when the time comes. The Cowboys just want to make sure he’s healthy enough to go in September.