Former Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith, who’s on the outside looking in after a failed two-year run at ESPN, is making a preseason radio tour -- and he is predicting failure for the Cowboys.
“Realistically, I think that the Cowboys can win seven games,” Smith told Colin Cowherd of ESPN Radio (via Tim MacMahon of the Dallas Morning News).
“I mean, when I start hearing things are going to change, I keep asking myself as a player, how much are they going to change? Are you going to be a hard-nosed coach now since things are going to change? Are you going to be more focused than you were last year? Those kind of things, I’m like, c’mon. This is not a game where you can just turn it on and turn it off.”
One major area of concern? Wideout Roy Williams, the new No. 1 man on the depth chart, thanks to the exile of Terrell Owens.
“The question is, can Roy step up and be what they need him to be?” Emmitt said. “I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s possible. . . . I do not see him as a No. 1. I never have saw him as a No. 1. Never have. When I say No. 1, I mean your No. 1 go-to guy. He’s not your No. 1 go-to guy.”
Emmitt also has misgivings about quarterback Tony Romo’s vow that the man with the “happy to be here” demeanor has changed. The all-time leading rusher shared those views on a visit with Sirius NFL Radio’s The Sirius Blitz. (Emmitt is doing these radio spots because he’s pushing pork. Not to be confused with pulling pork. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
"[W]hen you have your offseason and you say things are going to change and you’ve never been that dominant personality or in that leadership position then, as a player, you lose me,” Emmitt told Adam Schein and Rich Gannon. “You lost me. I’m sitting there saying, ‘OK, now you’re going to become a leader?’ What happened when we had all this great talent over here and we had a chance to go, not only in the playoffs, but in the first round of the playoffs when we got knocked out both times? Now all of a sudden you’re going to change? And our talent level is less than it was two years ago? How much better can we be?”
Yikes.
We assume Emmitt won’t be hanging out much at the new football cathedral in North Texas.