Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman recently had a harsh assessment of the Cowboys’ receivers, saying they run “terrible routes” and are “lazy coming off the line of scrimmage.”

Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb was asked Thursday about Aikman’s comments.

“It should be better overall,” said Lamb, via Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News.

Does he agree with Aikman’s assessment? “Next question.”

Quarterback Dak Prescott downplayed Aikman’s criticism.

“Whether he got personal, whether he went too far, the guy is getting paid to do that again and he’s doing his job,” Prescott said, via Watkins. “Once again, a job that he knows will cause an uproar, the last thing I should be doing is creating division in this building.”

Considering owner/GM Jerry Jones’ opinion of Aikman, disagreeing with him could indeed be divisive.

“Troy knows football,” Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. ‘My goodness, he lives it. When he was here, he was one of the most astute and hardworking people I have ever seen when reviewing tape or watching a team play. Troy is believable, boy.”

It all started with these comments from Aikman, at 1310 The Ticket in Dallas: “I think the routes are terrible. I think they sail terrible routes, and I thought the same after this year. I think CeeDee needs to improve in his route running. As a quarterback, if you’re not sure where guys are going to be consistently, it’s hard to play that position. That’s what I see.”

He saw more.

“I see guys lazily coming off the line of scrimmage,” Aikman added. ‘Sometimes they run away. When they do, it’s usually because they expect to get the football on that play, but if they don’t, they don’t. And it’s all connected. I’m not impressed with that part of it.

If there are any problems with route execution, it may be due to Jerry’s inability to get Lamb paid in time to show up at training camp.

“Yes, of course I mean you have to look at the camp and think about that,” Prescott said. “You can call it an excuse or whatever, but it’s just about, like I said, being consistent, whether it’s my read or his route, then us – I say communication up front – but communication there. If you haven’t had that time in camp, you need to be able to communicate through things, and some of these meetings have obviously been modified to make sure that happens.

Whatever the cause, something is wrong. The fact that Lamb would not specifically agree or disagree with Aikman seems to confirm this.