Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy feels Troy Aikman’s critiques of team ‘don’t carry weight,’ explains why

FRISCO, Texas — When any member of the 1990’s Dallas Cowboys dynasty era speaks about the current state of the Cowboys, people listen. 

That’s certainly the case when the person speaking happens to be Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman, who is now ESPN’s lead NFL analyst on “Monday Night Football.” Last week, Aikman ripped into the 2024 Cowboys, calling the routes being run “terrible” and that receivers were coming off the line of scrimmage “lazy.” He cited his position as a former quarterback before simply saying “it’s gotta get a lot better.”

To Aikman’s point, the Cowboys average yards of separation per target is a measly 3.0, the second-lowest in the entire league according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. That plays a significant role in why Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott has the league’s highest tight window throw rate, 22.8%, in the NFL, per the league’s Next Gen Stats. The Cowboys have also declined from producing like a top-five offense across the board in 2023, when Prescott led the NFL in touchdown passes (36) and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb led the league in receptions (135), to putting up below average production in multiple metrics. 

Despite data backing up Aikman’s claims, head coach Mike McCarthy bristled on Monday when asked about Aikman’s comments and disagreed with his framing on his offense’s situation since he isn’t in the building on a day-to-day basis. 

“For me to address to those comments, I don’t because they don’t carry any weight with me because I watch all the tape,” McCarthy said on Monday. “I get to go to the meetings. I’m at practice. I’m part of the games. Troy’s statement, in particular, I don’t agree with the word selection. But there is definitely need for improvement in every position, not just one position that he commented on. So, I think you look at the whole picture. You break it down and that’s what coaches do. There’s a process to it. There’s always a plan. These guys bring great energy. Their work ethic is high.”  

McCarthy then cited that team’s internal GPS tracking data to reveal his squad is working harder than it has in years. That type of tracking shows players’ heart rates, how much of a physical workload each player’s body can take and more. Now, it’s about getting them to work smarter, which is something the Cowboys coaching staff is working on. 

“GPS is a good monitor, gives you an idea of your workload capacity,” McCarthy said. “Going back to what I said earlier, to ’22, ’23 comparables, from a workload capacity, the GPS is higher than the prior two teams so that tells you that they are, the effort and energy is there. But the details and attention needs to go up. That’s going to be a big part of the message today. We’re not as detailed in a number of areas on our football team, which is normal for any football team that I’ve ever coached or been part of. For it to be highlighted with a brighter light because of external opinions, that’s not the way we work.”

The way the Cowboys coaching staff plans to work is by increasing the amount of group time players and coaches are spending breaking down technique and tendencies together. 

“We self scout every day. We self scout every week. And I think the biggest thing that’s come out of this just, once again, we met again as a staff this morning at 7, is we need to spend more time in group settings. Our coaches do a really good job because 10 years ago I felt that there was an epidemic of Power Point coaching, and we really spend a ton of time making sure our players see a tremendous amount of video in the structured meeting time together. So we need to build off of that and make sure that we do that. Where I’m going with this is, we’ve got to get away from as many individual meetings. We need more group. Because our connection between positions needs to be higher.”

One thing McCarthy does every year during the bye week and around midseason is something he calls “across the hall meetings.” It’s where offensive players meet in groups with defensive position coaches and defensive players meeting with offensive position coaches. Those meetings are designed so that players can hear what opponents might be saying when they gameplan against them. For example, offensive linemen meet with the defensive line coaches, wide receivers meet with secondary coaches, etc. 

“You got to make sure you know exactly who you are,” McCarthy said. “What you put on film Sunday, that’s who you are. That’s really what’s nice about across the hall because the defensive coaches evaluating the offensive players, it’ll all be off of game tape. Then, the individual work will be off of practice tape. We’ll get the fundamentals and technique teaching of hey, getting an offensive tackle, you know, [first-round rookie left tackle] Tyler Guyton. ‘Now that you have five games on tape, these are your tendencies.’ So now the d-line coaches are saying ‘you are open to the bull rush because you open your hips, every time on your second step.’ So, it’s those little things that he’s been told that already, but it’s like parenting. You know, I can tell my kids all day that, you know, take a better second step. … You guys write it in the paper. It probably works better. I think it’s human nature. If you hear it from somebody else, it just carries more weight.”