Troy Aikman critical of Dak Prescott, says he needs to improve these weaknesses

Dak Prescott enjoyed a great rookie campaign, but he’s hit the wall since then, and if anything, it seems as if he’s regressing.

Sure, some of that can be attributed to the Cowboys no longer having the best offensive line in the league — a unit that used to give him all day in protection. Not only that, the Cowboys parted ways with two of Prescott’s favorite targets — Dez Bryant and Jason Witten (retirement).

But one particular issue continues to loom large: accuracy. Prescott has completed only 61.8 percent of his passes this season, and it’s resulted in some stalled drives through five games of play. Former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman shared some thoughts about that very subject in a recent radio appearance on KTCK-AM (Dallas, Tx.).

“I’ve said for many, many years, as long as I can ever remember when I’m asked, ‘Hey, what do you look for first in a quarterback?'” he said. “The first thing I look for is accuracy, because the rest of it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how tough you are. It doesn’t matter how smart you are or what a great leader you are.

“None of that stuff matters if you can’t put the ball where you have to put it and I’ve seen too many errant throws in that regard, and then there needs to be a little more anticipation. When there’s two deep safeties, you’re looking for somebody to take the middle of the field, and that should be your first read if you have somebody who is taking the middle of the field versus those kinds of looks.

“I don’t see great anticipation on what a defense is doing and how might I be able to exploit that pre-snap or as the ball is snapped. And then, of course, they struggled running the football as well, which is their identity. So, that’s kind of my thoughts after going back and reviewing the film from the other night and where some areas are that they need to be better at.”

Aikman also noted that the Cowboys have had communication issues, and that the coaching staff is asking too much of Prescott at the line. So maybe simplifying things a bit as it relates to the playcalling can help the third-year quarterback going forward.