ESPN won’t replace Jason Witten on ‘Monday Night Football’

ESPN announced Wednesday that its “Monday Night Football” broadcast crew for the 2019 season will consist of Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland, opting not to replace the departed Jason Witten.

Tessitore (play-by-play) and McFarland (color commentary) return from last year’s crew, along with Lisa Salters, who will return to her duties as sideline reporter.

Witten left ESPN and came out of his NFL retirement to rejoin the Dallas Cowboys on a one-year contract.

Viewers won’t miss Witten, though, as the tight end was frequently criticized for both his style and his frequent screw-ups during his lone year in the booth.

ESPN’s original idea was to tempt Peyton Manning into Witten’s spot in the booth, according to a report from the Sporting News, but Manning declined, opting to work on other projects for ESPN.

Gone, too, will be McFarland’s “Booger mobile,” the experimental cart that McFarland traveled around the sidelines on which blocked many paying fans’ views of the field. ESPN’s press release said McFarland “will move from his field-level analyst position in 2018 to the booth, alongside Tessitore.”