To gear this toward Dak, which wasn't my initial intent, let's make it a fair assessment then. To be fair, lets check to see if the Cowboys have been passing as much as the other teams during Dak's 8-year tenure.
Dak started 114 games and attempted 3,873 passes. So he has averaged 33.97 passes per game.
In the last 8 Years the the average pass attempts/game in the NFL are 35.7, 34.2, 34.5, 34.9, 35.2, 34.4, 33.3, & 33.7. That's '16 thru '23. That's an average of 34.49.
Looks as if it's fair to say the Cowboys have been tossing it around pretty much on par with the rest of the league in the past 8 seasons unless .52 pass/game is a point of contention.
If you want to compare attempts/game between the three QB's you mentioned. Aikman averaged 28.58, as previously stated - Dak averages 33.97, and if you factor out the games Tony is listed as playing but didn't see the field or attempt a pass (26 games), he averaged 33.35. Just based on those numbers (full disclosure - regular season only as I can't review stats all day) from the limited sample you could conclude that the ball is in the air more than it used to be. Also, you need to account for the higher completion rates today thanks to the rules hand-cuffing how teams CAN'T play defense.
I'm sure around the league QB's that have been with an organization for an extended length of time are chewing-up numbers just as Dak is. I'm not knockin' the guy, just say he and his current contemporaries are playing in the opportune time period to generate statistics.
