The Cowboys are in first place in the NFC East. The way things are going, however, that won’t last.
Complicating matters is the fact that unnamed players are now venting to the NFL Network reporter who covers the team.
Here’s the tweet from NFLN’s Jane Slater: “Cowboys players initially bought into keeping things internal. Now as they sit 2-4 the discontent is leaking out. On the coaching staff ‘totally unprepared. They don’t teach. They don’t have any sense of adjusting on the fly.’ Another ‘they just aren’t good at their jobs.’”
Without knowing which players are saying these things, it’s hard to know whether to give these opinions any credence. And while the anonymous leaking of fact makes the media world go ‘round, anonymous leaking of opinion can become a stickier wicket.
Given the way the team is playing, it’s clear that something is wrong. Either the players aren’t good enough or the coaches aren’t doing a good enough job with them.
In most teams, that dynamic would set up a potential battle between coach and G.M. to make their case to the owner as to who bears the blame for a bad team. In Dallas, the G.M. is the owner.
Which actually makes it useful for ownership to have anonymous players blaming the coaching, since that will tend to take attention away from the idea that ownership has not done a good enough job finding capable players.