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

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

“Must be better overallLamb said 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, once again the guy gets paid and he does his job,” Prescott said of Watkins. “Once again he knows a job will cause turmoil. The last thing I can do is cause division within this building.”

Given how owner/GM Jerry Jones feels about Aikman, a disagreement with him could actually cause division.

“Troy knows football,” Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “My goodness, he’s living it. When he was here, he was one of the most astute and hard-working people I've ever seen when it came to evaluating tape or watching a team play. Troy is believable, boy.”

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

He saw more.

“I see guys being lazy and getting off the line of scrimmage,” Aikman added. “Sometimes they run. Usually that's because they assume they're going to get the ball in that game, but if not, then they don't. And everything is connected. I’m not impressed with that part.”

If there are problems with route running, it may be because Jerry failed to pay Lamb on time to show up to training camp.

“Yeah, I mean, obviously you have to look at camp and think about it,” Prescott said. “You can call it an excuse or whatever, but it's just about being right, like I said, being consistent, whether it's my reading or his route, then we – I say communication up front – but communication there. When you haven't had that time in camp, you need to be able to communicate about things and obviously some of these meetings have been adjusted to make sure that happens.”

Whatever the cause, something is wrong. The fact that Lamb neither explicitly agrees nor disagrees with Aikman tends to confirm this.