Former Cowboys quarterback and current Fox broadcaster Troy Aikman recently appeared on The Musers on 96.7 FM/1310 AM The Ticket [KTCK-AM]. Here are some of the highlights, edited for clarity:
Can you still have a shut-down corner in today’s game? How does someone like Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs compare to a Deion Sanders?
Troy Aikman: “It’s a good question and we don’t have time to elaborate on that all that often during a broadcast but, I hear a lot about shut-down corners and I laugh about it because Deion was truly the only shut-down corner that I know of, and there’s been a lot of great corners beside him. But, Deion would go weeks without a ball even being thrown his direction and I think late in his career, he was able to play a few more years longer than probably what his body would’ve allowed him just because people were still nervous about throwing toward him.
“For us, when we played against Deion before he came to Dallas, we threw at him. When he was with Atlanta and then San Francisco, I didn’t shy away from throwing it toward him because he was going to travel with Michael [Irvin] and there was no way we could just say that we weren’t going to throw the ball to Mike. Michael caught some balls and Deion won his share, too. You just have to be smart about it as a quarterback. You just have to know when you can make a throw and when the coverage is just a little too tight, because [Deion] was like a receiver when the ball came into his area.
“So, with Trevon, when you’re talking about [New York Giants QB Mike] Glennon trying to make that throw on someone as fast as Trevon is, or as Deion was... Deion was faster than Michael, you’re really risking it. Now, when Michael could body Deion up on a comeback or something like that, then it was a whole different deal. I think what people are going to realize is... He’ll still have balls thrown in his direction, but it will be very calculated and they’ll just have to be smarter. The quarterbacks will. And I think that’s now going to happen. I don’t know about up until Sunday’s game, but his closing speed on that ball I think will have gotten a lot of offensive coordinator’s attention. A lot of people’s attention.
...
“What a luxury in today’s game to have a corner who can cover people the way he can. And then obviously, create the takeaways. You know, the Cowboys are still giving up some yards and they likely will. They’re without some key players. ... But the takeaways are really big. It’s one thing to be a good defense, but to be a great defense you have to create takeaways. And then a step further, score off those takeaways. But, they’re doing a lot of good things and being this early in the season, with a new scheme and some young players, their confidence is only going to only grow more and more.”
Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.