Troy Aikman shades Tony Romo, other Cowboys QBs in praising Dak Prescott

The Dallas Cowboys are searching for their first Super Bowl since 1995. It's been an exhausting 23-year wait and the hope is Dallas' aggressive offseason will finally get the team over the hump next season.

While the roster top to bottom will have to cooperate for that to happen, nobody faces more pressure to deliver than Dak Prescott, who, despite leading the NFL's most prolific offense after he returned from injury, has taken criticism after his turnover-marred 2022 and lackluster showing in the playoff loss vs the 49ers.

As QB of the Cowboys, criticism will follow Prescott regardless of performance. The magnitude he endured last year was hard to refute, though.

Nobody understands this better than Troy Aikman, who famously led the Cowboys to three Super Bowl titles in the 1990s. Aikman has often defended Prescott from the slings and arrows. From calling games on FOX and now ESPN, fans will typically hear Aikman going to bat for the former fourth-round pick.

That continued this week at the Light It Up Gala to raise money to fight children's cancer.

Troy Aikman believes Cowboys' Dak Prescott can win a Super Bowl.

“Dak has never cowered to the expectations of winning the Super Bowl,’’ Aikman said, via the Dallas Morning News. “He’s taken that head on. He’s the only one I’ve heard since I’ve played that is really been that adamant about that being the standard for a Cowboys quarterback."

Of course, Aikman's career ended after the 2000 season. It wasn't until Tony Romo took the quarterback reigns in 2006 that the Cowboys found stability at the position. They cycled through Quincy Carter, Chad Hutchinson, Vinny Testaverde, and Drew Bledsoe before Romo supplanted the latter in '06.

Romo was in charge of the offense for nine seasons, and while he delivered myriad memorable moments, his tenure is largely rememebred for what the team didn't accomplish on the big stage. That's been the story of Prescott's career up until this point, too, but Aikman recognizes a hunger in Dak he didn't see in Romo or any of the signal callers that preceeded the former undrafted free agent.

“What I’m most proud of in my career is the fact of whatever success the team of the ‘70s had, and Roger had winning Super Bowls, with our ability to win three, that now is the bar,’’ Aikman added “And Dak recognizes that.’’

“I really think he just wants to win. He knows if you do that, it really doesn’t matter what the rest looks like. The quarterback will get a lot of credit for that."

Aikman speaks for most Cowboys fans. Prescott always says the right things behind the microphone and it's pretty obvious winning is his No.1 objective and that he realizes what comes with being Dallas' quarterback.

Winning a Super Bowl is hard, but at some point Prescott needs to lead the Cowboys beyond the Divisional Round. If he doesn't, he'll have nowhere to hide from the Romo comparisons that cropped up after the 49ers loss.

Like Aikman, we're all rooting for Dak to get it done.