The Dallas Cowboys are off to a 3-5 start this season and, well, things are not looking too good right now. Last Sunday, of course, the Cowboys led the Arizona Cardinals in the fourth quarter before losing 33-30 in overtime.

Can Dallas players keep one another accountable for their play? One former Cowboys legend believes it has to happen right now.

Cowboys Legend Darren Woodson Speaks Out on Dallas’ Issues

Former Dallas defensive back Darren Woodson, who was drafted in the second round of the 1992 NFL Draft by the Cowboys out of Arizona State, isn’t holding back on his comments.

Woodson shared his thoughts on the team’s current state on the latest episode of “The Darren Woodson Show.” He first placed responsibility for Dallas’ problems at the top of the organization, arguing that leadership must evaluate itself before anything else can change.

“It starts from the top,” Woodson said. “Jerry (Cowboys owner Jones) will admit that. It starts from the top. Like, you start your own business, and you’re the head guy, the CEO or the GM; it starts with you.

“It really does, so you have to take a look, a hard look, at yourself,” he continued. “Every year, you have to take a hard look at yourself personnel-wise and say, ‘Are we putting the right personnel there? Is our culture intact? Am I drafting good character guys who want to play?'”

He then turned to the roster itself, saying Dallas has some of the right building blocks but not enough of them across the full team.

“I think they are drafting some guys who are good character guys,” Woodson said. “I’ve watched Tyler Smith this year; I’ve watched (Caleb) Downs this year. (Tyler) Booker’s a guy. Like there’s some guys that you look at and go, ‘They’re the right guys’. But it’s not 10 guys that make the team.”

For Woodson, the bigger issue is whether all 53 players understand their roles and hold one another accountable to the standard required to win.

“It’s not,” he continued. “It’s 53 guys who understand their role, what the expectation is, and they do their job at the highest level, and everyone is keeping them accountable. Everyone. Hell, I played with teams, man, I told you before the show that I’ve missed tackles and my defensive back partners Larry Brown, Kevin Smith, Deion (Sanders) laid into me.”

Woodson pointed to his own playing days as an example of how direct that accountability could be, even among established players and stars.

“Like, ‘You were the free guy, you were supposed to make that tackle. Make the damn tackle,’ coaches, everything,” Woodson continued. “Superstars. They didn’t give a damn. I’ve watched Troy Aikman light up Michael Irvin for running a dig route at 12 yards instead of 14 yards. Like, you have to hold each other accountable.”

Woodson said that if players are not holding each other accountable, then players are just freelancing on the field. Again, he emphasized that this was not OK. Additionally, Woodson pointed out that players have between two and a half and three hours to play a game.

“I don’t know how many plays you have altogether, maybe 70 plays defensively,” Woodson continued. “You’re not going to be perfect for those 70, but damn, you’ve got to win most of those.”

This coming Sunday, Dallas travels to play the Indianapolis Colts, who have pretty much given up on this season. It’s an opportunity for the Cowboys, who rank last on PFN’s Defense Impact Metric, to come out strong against a 2-6 Colts team that has lost four straight and appears to be shifting toward a rebuild.

Importantly, the players still need to hold themselves accountable to each other. If they don’t, then expect Woodson to have more comments on that next week.