Troy Aikman on Cowboys season: They ‘know more than likely, they are not going anywhere’
Former
NFL quarterback Troy Aikman is familiar with bad Dallas Cowboys teams. In his first season as the
Cowboys starter, the Cowboys posted an 0-11 record in his 1989 starts.
Thus, he clearly understands what this season’s 3-6 Cowboys team is going through.
“That’s the hard part. I’ve been on teams that have kind of been out of it at this point in the season, and it’s not a lot of fun,” Aikman said on ESPN’s Monday Night Football Kick-off broadcast.
Aikman and the Cowboys entered the 1989 season with low expectations. That’s a stark contrast to this 2024 team which figured to be a playoff contender.
The Cowboys, who played the Houston Texans on Monday Night, are in third place in the NFC East and are a long shot to make the playoffs. They’d need to go on a long winning streak over the final eight games of the season and do it behind back-up quarterback Cooper Rush, who has replaced Dak Prescott.
Prescott was injured against Atlanta on Nov. 3 and will not return this season.
“A team that came in with certainly high expectations, were relying on a lot of young players,” Aikman said about this season’s team. “That’s where this really began to unravel. They weren’t active in free agency. They lost a number of key players. They lost some offensive linemen and replaced them with two rookies. That hasn’t gone as well as hoped. They’ve had to rely on some other young players that they thought would develop and become a bigger part of the solution. And that hasn’t happened. So some of the questions coming into the year are still question marks.
“They have not been able to run the football. Now they are without their franchise quarterback.”
Aikman said that although the players are “optimistic” about beating Houston on Monday, the players and management “know more than likely, they are not going anywhere
The former Dallas quarterback commented on ESPN prior to the Monday Night Football game home game against Houston about the reasons the Cowboys are 3-6.
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