Jerry Jones won’t go as far as saying Troy Aikman was right in his criticism of Cowboys receivers, but he’s certainly not disputing it.
The Cowboys legend-turned-NFL commentator turned heads last week when he took Dallas’ wideouts to task in an interview on KTCK.
“I think they run terrible routes,” Aikman said, via The Dallas Morning News. “And I've thought that beyond this year. I think CeeDee (Lamb) has got to improve in his route running. As a quarterback, if you're not certain where guys are going to be consistently, it's hard to play the position. That's what I see, I see guys lazy coming off the line of scrimmage. Sometimes they run, usually if they do, it's because they're anticipating they're going to get the football on that play, but if they're not, they don't. And it all ties together -- I'm not impressed with that part of it.”
It is not the most unfair criticism, especially with the Cowboys passing game at times struggling to get off the ground. There is top end talent with players like Lamb, but there isn’t a ton of depth to offset days where he’s off or shut down.
Lamb has been targeted 55 times this season, reeling in 32 passes for 467 yards. The next closest pass-catchers in terms of targets are Jalen Tolbert and tight end Jake Ferguson, both of whom have 34 targets (Tolbert has 24 receptions for 290, while Ferguson has 25 catches for 240 yards).
Mike McCarthy, for his part, said the comments “don’t carry any weight” with him. Asked about the remarks Tuesday in his weekly appearance on Shan & RJ, Jones spent most of his response effusively praising Aikman’s football acumen.
“Troy knows football. My goodness, he lives it," Jones said. "When he was here, he was one of the most astute and hard-working people I’ve ever seen at evaluating tape or looking at how a team is playing. Troy is credible, and should be. Not only that, you can imagine he's not just interested in taking a whack at the Cowboys – that feels as much or more than anybody does about the Cowboys. He’s very professional, I think he’s very fair. And certainly, you can look at what we’ve been doing, you can look at such things as the separation compared to other teams – those are the analytics that you work with today.
“Fundamentally, I was talking with Mike, our players need to work on when they’ve got tight coverage and work on pushing on through physical contact. That’s just an example, that’s not the only thing. But I’m pretty confident that we’ve got the ability to coach, and we’ve got some receivers that can take the coaching and can improve. That’s the big thing, improve.”
After getting drubbed at home by the Lions heading into the bye and now sitting at 3-3, suffice it to say the Cowboys need to improve badly and quickly.