Any time someone talks about the Dallas Cowboys these days, the issue of coaching is one of the first subjects to be part of the cycle. What kind of job has Jason Garrett done? Not just this season but over his entire tenure? Why have the Cowboys allowed him to stay on for so long? How can he still be employed by the team?

Coaching is an issue. Nobody is denying that. There have been some basic and fundamental mistakes made by the 2019 iteration of America’s Team and for that there certainly should be some accountability from the man in charge.

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What about the man in charge, though? As in Jerry Jones? The owner, president, and general manager of the Cowboys is certainly not above responsibility here, and it feels like that’s a message that just about everybody agrees with... including Troy Aikman.

Aikman is obviously a Hall of Fame quarterback that had tons of success with the Cowboys during his day. He also serves as FOX’s number one color analyst so we get to see him do Cowboys games a lot (he will also be on the call this Thursday night).

Aikman made his weekly appearance on The Ticket on Tuesday and offered some words of criticism for the Cowboys front office. He noted that Jason Garrett needs to improve but that he also needs to be allowed to do his job.

“I always believe everything starts at the top. And that’s not to say that everything’s the fault at the top, but that’s where it begins. And we’ve got a head coach who we know for 10 years has been saying that ‘We’re focused on Tuesday, today. That’s all we’re working. That’s all we’re worried about is having the best practice today that we can possibly have.’ and that’s been his messaging throughout and the owner’s talking about getting on a run and winning the Super Bowl. And they’ve lost three of their last four. And you’ve got a head coach who comes out and says we’re going to evaluate the kicker and then the front office says right after that, probably at a press conference right outside the locker room, that they weren’t evaluating the kicker. All those things have an impact. And it slowly trickles down. So I think there’s a lot of factors that have played into this. Coaching obviously hasn’t been great at times in certain situations, players haven’t played great, but the front office hasn’t been great in allowing the head coach to do his job either.”

For years there have been people that subscribe to the idea that Jason Garrett is simply a puppet for Jerry Jones’ ultimate goals and messages, but we’ve learned that this is not exactly the case. Garrett certainly has his say in things with his team, but Aikman is right in that he is definitely undermined at times, especially with public messages.

It was actually Stephen Jones who took to the radio airwaves on Friday to say that the Cowboys would not be making a kicking change. Of course, two days later we found out from Garrett himself during his normal press conference that the team was looking at kicking options (they ultimately didn’t make a change).

These types of things are at the very least intriguing and a relevant point for Aikamn to bring up. While Jason Garrett is certainly at fault for a lot of things it cannot be easy to have your messages and purposes so openly contradicted, especially at a time when you are fighting for your very job.