Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman recently had a harsh assessment of the Cowboys’ receivers, saying they run “terrible routes” and that they are “lazy coming off the line of scrimmage.”
Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb was asked about Aikman’s comments on Thursday.
“Got to be better overall,” Lamb said, via Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News.
Does he agree with Aikman’s assessment? “Next question.”
Quarterback Dak Prescott downplayed the criticism from Aikman.
“[W]hether he got personal, whether he went too far, once again the guy gets paid to do that and he’s doing a job,” Prescott said, via Watkins. “Once again, a job he knows is going to create a ruckus, the last thing I’m allowed to do is create division inside this building.”
Given the opinion of owner/G.M. Jerry Jones regarding Aikman, disagreeing with him could indeed create division.
“Troy knows football,” Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “My goodness, he lives it. 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’s credible, boy.”
It all started with these comments from Aikman, on 1310 The Ticket in Dallas: “I think the routes are terrible. I think they run terrible routes, and I’ve thought that beyond this year. I think CeeDee 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.”
He saw more.
“I see guys lazy coming off the line of scrimmage,” Aikman added. “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.”
If there are issues with route running, it possibly traces to Jerry’s failure to get Lamb paid in time to show up for training camp.
“Yeah, I mean obviously you have to look at camp and you think about that,” Prescott said. “You can call it an excuse or whatever, but it just goes into, right, as I said, being consistent, whether it be my read or his route, then us — I say communication up front — but communication there. When you haven’t had that time in camp, you’ve got to be able to communicate through things, which obviously some of these meetings have been adjusted to make sure those happen.”
Whatever the cause, something is off. The fact that Lamb wouldn’t specifically agree or disagree with Aikman tends to confirm it.
