ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The Latest on the NFL draft (all times local):
6:50 p.m.
The Dallas Cowboys have nine picks over the final six rounds of the NFL draft amid an ESPN report that tight end Jason Witten plans to retire after 15 seasons and join the “Monday Night Football” telecast.
Owner and general manager Jerry Jones says Witten hasn’t made a final decision and wanted the weekend to think about his future. The Cowboys will have to decide whether they need to take another tight end.
Dallas already had one tight end retire this month. James Hanna, mostly a blocker as Witten’s backup, gave up after a two-year battle with a knee injury.
Executive vice president Stephen Jones has expressed confidence in the other three tight ends on the roster: Geoff Swaim, Blake Jarwin and former Baylor basketball player Rico Gathers.
Swaim, a seventh-round pick out of Texas in 2015, has the most experience with nine catches for 94 yards in 28 games over three seasons.
Jarwin, undrafted a year ago, spent most of the season on the practice squad. Gathers hasn’t played a regular-season game in two seasons, missing all of last year after sustaining a concussion in training camp.
The Cowboys weren’t afraid to take tight ends high in the draft with Witten as the starter. They’ve made three second-round picks since 2003: Anthony Fasano (2006), Martellus Bennett (2008) and Gavin Escobar (2013).
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5:25 p.m.
The NFL said that Thursday’s first round of the draft had the second-largest viewership ever for an opening night.
The first round of the draft, which was televised by Fox, ESPN, ESPN2 and the NFL Network, combined for 11.2 million viewers, an increase of 22 percent over the first round of the 2017 draft in Philadelphia which was televised by ESPN and the NFL Network.
With a total of 30 million viewers, the draft easily outdrew an NBA playoff game on TNT: Bucks-Celtics had a 2.4 million average.
The draft continues on Friday night with the second and third rounds.
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2:45 p.m.
The NFL likes to trot out its legends. It particularly enjoys doing it for the second day of the draft.
Once again it will do so, and 10 Pro Football Hall of Famers will be on hand to announce their team’s pick.
Quite the roster, from the man considered by many the greatest player ever, Jim Brown for Cleveland, to tackle Jerry Kramer, who enters the Canton, Ohio, shrine this summer and was the blocker for Green Bay’s Bart Starr’s winning touchdown in the Ice Bowl.
The other Hall of Famers: Aeneas Williams (Arizona), Andre Reed (Buffalo), Mike Singletary (Chicago), Bob Lilly (Dallas), Willie Lanier (Kansas City), LaDainian Tomlinson (Los Angeles Chargers), Dwight Stephenson (Miami), Willie Brown (Oakland) and Rod Woodson (Pittsburgh).
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1:45 p.m.
Lots of brothers have made it to the NFL. Some have played on the same team or been selected in the same draft.
The Edmunds siblings made history Thursday night as the first brothers selected in the same opening round. Linebacker Tremaine went 16th to Buffalo. Then older brother safety Terrell, also of Virginia Tech, was chosen 28th by Pittsburgh.
Older brother Trey was a rookie running back with the Saints last year.
Talk about family pride.
“Man, it was great,” Tremaine says. “Definitely to see my other brother get drafted tonight, it was a big-time relief for my whole family. I know everybody’s excited and I’m excited. It’s a long time coming, but we can finally say that we made it.”
Tremaine is only 19 and will be one of the youngest players in the league. Terrell is 21.
“I’ve always been a young guy, whatever team that I was on,” Tremaine says. “I’m a mature guy, so I just say, just listened to my dad, my brother because they’ve been through the process, try to get things from them and continue to do the things I was doing and be the best player that I can be.”
Tremaine and Terrell’s dad is Ferrell Edmunds, who played seven NFL seasons at tight end. It was a competitive household for Ferrell’s sons.
“Very competitive,” Terrell says. “We stayed in like a cul-de-sac with my cousins as well, so we were all out there playing pickup. We called it pick up and dive. So like you pick up the ball and then you run. It is a never-ending game.
“So you pick up the ball, you run until you get tackled. If you get tackled you got to throw the ball in the air. So outside people were losing teeth, coming in with cuts all over and everything, but we just kept on playing, so it’s definitely competitive. And in any sport — basketball, too, because we were basketball players, too, so competitive all the time.”
Two of the brothers could meet on Dec. 23 when the Steelers are at New Orleans.
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