Troy Aikman questions how Jerry Jones is running the Cowboys

Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman is the latest figure to question Jerry Jones’ recent approach to running the franchise.

Aikman appeared on “The Rich Eisen Show” Tuesday and was asked about the Cowboys’ decision to trade Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers after contract talks stalled. Aikman said he does not actually think Jones does not care about winning, but the current FOX analyst agrees that the owner has given off the impression that attention matters more.

“I saw Jerry talk about the fact that having the Cowboys as a discussion point is meaningful to him, and if people aren’t talking about the Cowboys, he’ll do things to stir it up. He kind of walked into that and has given the impression that that supersedes winning,” Aikman admitted. “I think in some ways, I’m sure Jerry and the Jones family and everyone is tired of talking about the fact that they haven’t won a Super Bowl in 30 years. When you deflect that, then essentially, the valuation of your franchise, or the attention and the exposure, or the drama, or as Jerry said, the fact that the Cowboys are a soap opera 365 days a year, that then becomes the scoreboard instead of winning and losing on the field.

“Do I think that winning is not important to Jerry Jones? Not at all. I think Jerry wants to win more than anything else, and I think he’s very exhausted of the fact that this team, although they’ve won a lot of regular season games, they’ve only won four playoff games. That’s hard to stomach.”

Jones’ handling of the Parsons negotiations gave rise to a lot of theories about how he prefers attention to success. Some of Jones’ own answers have not done much to dispel that notion either, whether it is true or not.

Aikman has not been afraid to be critical of the Cowboys, but it is not a good sign for Jones when even his former quarterback admits how bad the optics are. The best way for Jones to fight that narrative is by constructing the best possible team. Perhaps he thinks he is actually doing that already, but few would agree.