An embarrassing loss to Tennessee Monday night has caught the attention of former Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman.
In the wake of the 28-14 loss to the Titans, Aikman said Tuesday morning that “major organizational changes” are needed if the team doesn’t turn around in the second half of what has been a 3-5 season. The Cowboys are two games behind first-place Washington in the NFC East.
The Cowboys have gone through five coaches — Chan Gailey, Dave Campo, Bill Parcells, Wade Phillips and Jason Garrett — since winning their last Super Bowl in 1996. None of them have been able to even take the Cowboys to an NFC Championship Game.
During an interview with Dallas radio station 1310 The Ticket, Aikman blamed owner and general manager Jerry Jones for the organizational upheaval.
“Go through the list and this team, over a long period of time, has been what it’s been,” said Aikman, who directed the Cowboys to three Super Bowl championships in his Hall of Fame career. “It hasn’t always mattered who the head coach has been. So to me, if you’re asking me, I’d say there has to be a complete overhaul of the entire organization.”
Jones has been the general manager of the team since buying the team in 1989. But most of the heavy lifting for the organization are carried out by his son Stephen Jones, Coach Jason Garrett and vice president of player personnel Will McClay in terms of personnel moves.
“I’ve heard Jerry say, ‘OK, look, we’re going to do it differently. I’m going to do it differently.’ … But it’s the same. Nothing changes,” Aikman told the station.
“And that to me is the bigger issue. … Yes, coaching is important, personnel, all those things are important, but how are you going about evaluating how you’re going about running the organization?
“Whatever that looks like — and everyone has an opinion on what it does look like, but I’m not in the building. I have no idea. I talk to people. I talk to people who have been inside the building and have a pretty good understanding how things are run, and in a lot of ways there’s a lot of dysfunction, and that has to change if this team is going to be able to compete on a consistent basis like the teams that you look to around the league that seemingly are in the hunt each and every year.”
The Cowboys return to action Sunday at Philadelphia.
