The Dallas Cowboys are coming off their bye week, an emotionally trying one at that, and are set to return to the field Monday night for a matchup against the Raiders.
And if you ask the Cowboys’ Hall of Fame quarterback to scout Dallas’ upcoming opponent … he doesn’t sound all that impressed.
Former Cowboys QB Troy Aikman made his weekly appearance with “The Musers” on Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket (KTCK-AM) on Thursday where he previewed Monday night’s game, for which Aikman will be on the call with ESPN play-by-play partner Joe Buck.
Aikman was asked for his impression of the 2-7 Raiders, in their first season of a regime change with head coach Pete Carroll and veteran QB Geno Smith under center.
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There are some bright spots in the Las Vegas organization, Aikman says, but overall he was expecting more of an uptick from Carroll and crew.
See what Aikman had to say below.
Question: “Are you a little surprised that Pete Carroll and Geno Smith haven’t injected a little bit more of a spark this year?”
Aikman: “Yes. I am. I think a lot of people are. Maybe it was unrealistic, I don’t know.
“I thought when the hire was made for Pete Carroll, there’s two ways to look at it. You say, well you bring in a guy who’s 74 years old, you’re gonna be back in the market for a head coach pretty soon. And do you wanna do that, or do you wanna build it around somebody?
“But they’ve tried building it around people, and it hasn’t worked. This is the fourth regime, I guess, in five years. So it’s been a lot of turnover, and we all know what happens when you’re changing out coaches that way. We’ve seen it in Dallas, to a lesser extent, obviously. But when you make changes at the coaching ranks, it affects the roster, it affects a lot of things as far as what you’ve been trying to do to get going in the right direction.
Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll in the first half of an NFL football game Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
David Zalubowski / AP
“My thought, however, was that they’d been trying to bring these guys in, and it hasn’t worked, so to hire Pete Carroll, who has a track record of having success. He knows what it takes to win, bring in a winning culture, he’s been a head coach for a long time, taken teams to the playoffs, all that. So bring someone who can provide some stability to the organization and change the culture first, and then bring in some players and the defensive scheme. And along with Geno Smith, who played his best football with Pete in Seattle…
“But it just has not worked out up to this point. I thought it would look a lot different than it currently does. Geno hasn’t played particularly well, he certainly hasn’t played to the level that he did there in Seattle. But the offensive line hasn’t been great either, that’s had some issues. They lost Brock Bowers for a little bit. They just don’t have a great ilk of playmakers right now.
“Ashton Jeanty, I like him a lot. And I really like Brock Bowers. The wide receiver position, they’ve got some young guys that are still finding their way that have some ability. And they just traded a guy who I’ve always liked in Jakobi Meyers. So yeah, it’s been a battle. …”
“With all that said, I always go into games expecting a good game, I’m an eternal optimist. And I do expect this to be a good game, a tight game.”
Click here to listen to the full interview.
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