Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones may be looking to play the 1990s dynasty years hits after parting ways with head coach Mike McCarthy on Monday.
Jones has reached out to former Cowboys Super Bowl champion cornerback and current Colorado Buffalos head football coach Deion Sanders about Dallas' head-coaching vacancy, per CBS Sports lead NFL insider Jonathan Jones. A formal interview hasn't yet been scheduled with Sanders, but Jones and Sanders will stay in touch about the opening, according to Jones.
"To hear from Jerry Jones is truly delightful, and it's intriguing," Sanders told ESPN Monday night. "I love Jerry and believe in Jerry. After you hang up, and process it, and think about it, it's intriguing. But I love Boulder and everything there is about our team, the coaches, our student body and the community."
Sanders was on Dallas' last Super Bowl championship team in 1995 and earned both Pro Bowl and All-Pro accolades in four of his five years with the Cowboys. Mike Zimmer, Dallas' defensive coordinator for the 2024 season, was Sanders' defensive backs coach in all five of those seasons (1995-1999), and he remains a close friend of Sanders to this day. Back in November, Zimmer didn't think Sanders was looking to leave Colorado.
"Deion and I are obviously really good friends, and we talk weekly probably, but I'm not going to speculate on any jobs or anything like that because I don't think that's right," Zimmer said at the time. "I know that he's told me many times that he's really happy at Colorado. He likes it there. Obviously, they've done a great job. Trying to watch his games each and every week that I can to give him some tidbits and go from there."
The Pro Football Hall of Fame corner claimed to have "a kickstand down" with the Buffaloes the next day after Zimmer's comments, but now he's at least reportedly listening to Jones about the victory. It's definitely a longshot for Sanders to take the Cowboys job because he said the only way he would consider making the leap to the NFL would be to coach his sons. Quarterback Shedeur Sanders is ranked as the No. 2 prospect at the quarterback position in the 2025 NFL Draft by CBS Sports. His son Shilo Sanders, a safety, will look to boost his draft stock at the end of the month at the East-West Shrine Bowl.
Sanders' stipulation about coaching his children could create a snag. The Cowboys have the 2025 NFL Draft's 12th overall pick, which is well out of range to select Shedeur Sanders. Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott begins the first season of a four-year, $240 million extension in 2025, and if the team traded him this offseason, it would incur a dead cap hit of $103.2 million, according to OverTheCap.com. Jones despises dead salary cap hits, something he repeatedly lamented when discussing running back Ezekiel Elliott's $6 million dead cap hit in 2024 for releasing him in 2023. It can't hurt for Jones to talk with Sanders, but the odds of "Prime Time" coming to the Cowboys are slim, given Sanders' own condition.
