IRVING, Texas — Dallas tight end and two-time Pro Bowler Jason Witten agreed to a seven year, $29 million contract with the Cowboys on Saturday.

The deal, in the works for most of the offseason, includes a $6 million signing bonus, a guaranteed $6 million option bonus next March on top of a $500,000 base salary this season, team officials said.

The former University of Tennessee star from Elizabethton was entering the final season of the original four-year contract he signed in 2003 after being selected in the third round. He was scheduled to have a base salary of $1.573 million in 2006.

Witten, 24, caught 66 passes for 757 yards last season.

In 2004, he was second in the NFL in receptions (87) and receiving yards (980) among tight ends. It was also the most prolific season by a Cowboys tight end.

Without the new deal, Witten would have been eligible for unrestricted free agency next spring. The goal of both sides was to have a new deal in place before the Cowboys reported for training camp Thursday in Oxnard, Calif.

Talks between the Cowboys and agent Jimmy Sexton were ramped up over the past few days.

Witten joins an elite group of tight ends with big paydays. The New York Giants’ Jeremy Shockey signed a five-year, $26 million extension last season. Antonio Gates of the Chargers signed a six-year deal worth up to $24 million.

"I’m not trying to be the highest-paid tight end or anything like that," the 24-year-old Witten told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Thursday. "But I feel like I am playing at just as high a level as those guys out there with Gates, Shockey and (Kansas City’s Tony) Gonzalez. I’m just trying to get what’s fair. It’s been good so far."