Deion to Dallas? Can Coach Prime get what he wants if he returns?
Will it happen? Maybe. Maybe not. But I'm more interested in the 'if' it happens.
A tension sits over the campus in Boulder, as fans, students, and administrators alike wait on head coach Deion Sanders next move. A marriage at the time that seemed too good to be true very well may have been as the Hall of Fame defensive back has once again been linked to head coach openings in the NFL, but this time he has a chance to go home.
Once the Dallas Cowboys parted ways with Mike McCarthy, Sanders and owner Jerry Jones had a conversation about him taking up the role. Sanders spent five years with the Cowboys where he won a Super Bowl and earned four All-Pro team honors. Sanders and his family resided in Texas following his playing career and is where his son and future NFL quarterback, Shedeur, was born.
The rumor mill has been swirling since the conversation between the two happened. As far as we know:
Deion is incredibly interested in the Cowboys job and his family is as well
Jerry Jones love Deion and is serious about the inquiry
Sanders would absolutely accept the position if offered
This may all just be a leverage play for Sanders to get more NIL money at Colorado and a better extension
Sanders has not signed his offered extension at Colorado
There is no planned formal interview scheduled
So, I’m not going to wade through the mess of ‘will he/won’t he’ rumors to figure out the motives of Deion Sanders or Jerry Jones. What we’ll instead do is figure out if the pairing makes any sense.
Sanders had previously been linked to the opening in Las Vegas, a team whose pursuit of a quarterback could lead them to draft Sanders’ son, Shedeur.
Deion has remained adamant that the only reason he’d jump ship to the NFL would be to follow his sons to continue to work with them, as he had the previous four seasons at Jackson State and Colorado. That seemed plausible in Vegas, but the teams atop the draft, Tennessee and Cleveland, retained their head coaches. While both franchises are in need of a new quarterback, neither is guaranteed to take one in what’s considered to be a weaker class at the position.
The Cowboys are even further down in the order at 12th overall, but more considerably just extended the contract of quarterback Dak Prescott to what is currently the largest deal in the league on a per-year basis.
So, either Deion is okay bypassing his previous requirements to join the team he spent most of his prime with, or agreeing to a deal with Dallas has to come with the promise of aggressively pursuing his son. Is that possible? Yes, actually.
Understanding Dak Prescott’s Contract
Initially, this doesn’t look like this is a very moveable contract. Cutting Dak outright this off-season would incur massive cap implications and would cost far more than it would be to just keep him.
However, trading him carries much different implications. According to OverTheCap, trading Dak post-June 1st is only expensive in 2025 and the savings would start to kick in the next year.
The devil is in the details.
Dak has to be on the roster on or near the league new year for the next three years to get his “guarantees.” Moving on from him before those guarantees kick in could save Jerry Jones and the Cowboys a lot of money.
Dak has to agree to a couple things for this to happen. First of all, he’ll have to waive his no-trade clause, second, he’d have to agree to push back his “guarantee date” this year so that the Cowboys can execute a trade post-June 1st.
So, Prescott owns all the leverage in this case. He can make it very difficult for the Cowboys to try anything that he wouldn’t be happy with or deny it outright.
But, what if he is okay with a move? What if, in this case, Jones and Sanders made it clear they’re moving on and Prescott is willing to make the move elsewhere.
Hypothetical Tennessee-Dallas Trade
It’s hard to imagine Dak would sign off on going to Cleveland, who own the 2nd overall pick, with the northern climate and the rebuild going on at the expense of DeShaun Watson’s contract. The Giants at 3rd overall likely wouldn’t play ball with their rival even if Prescott is available, and the Cowboys probably won’t want to send him there either.
Trading any further down the line puts the whole point of a trade into question, as Shedeur Sanders could be selected at any time.
That means a trade would have to happen with the Tennessee Titans at 1st overall.
Projected Trade
Dallas receives: Pick 1.01, 5th (via KC), WR Treylon Burks
Tennessee receives: QB Dak Prescott, Picks 1.12, 3.12, 2025 4th
There is no precedent for a trade like this. The closest would be San Francisco trading up from the 12th pick to 3rd overall for Trey Lance, in which they sent their 12th pick, two 1sts, and a 3rd. Otherwise, in 2016 the Rams moved up from pick 15 to the first overall pick from Tennessee by sending their 1st, two 2nds, a 3rd, and a future 1st and 3rd.
When considering those trades, an extra 1st seems to be the minimum. The 49ers sent another 1st on top but little in extra picks, whereas the Rams only sent a singular extra 1st but multiple other premium picks.
The value in this case is a little weird. Dak Prescott should count considerably toward the value from Dallas, but Tennessee will be footing the bill of his contract. Still, I have to imagine Tennessee and new head coach Brian Callahan would be ecstatic to land a franchise quarterback while still gaining draft capital.
Dallas however isn’t going to get crazy trying to make this trade happen and won’t overpay. In this case, they get their QB, add a 5th for flexibility, and take a flyer on Burks because Jerry Jones loves his fixer-ups. They aren’t sending a haul, Prescott himself is plenty of value, but they do add a premium pick and an extra pick next year.
But let’s assume a few things that are more than likely to be true. Let’s assume this trade value isn’t agreed upon by one or both sides, or that Jones doesn’t give in to Sanders on trading up for his son. A lot has to happen for this hypothetical to happen. So, let’s look at a different one where Jerry Jones is happy and Deion gets his son.
No, not Shilo.
Cowboys Trade Up for Travis Hunter
Travis Hunter may not be Deion Sanders’ son in blood or name, but by all means he was as crucial to Deion’s young coaching career as his actual kin.
https://x.com/RShermanPodcast/status/1844068395169251610
Hunter was the no. 1 recruit in the nation and became the first of such to sign with an HBCU or FCS school to follow Deion Sanders in his college coaching debut. When Prime made the hop to Colorado, Hunter was right there next to him. Deion lived up to his promise, Hunter played both sides of the ball and developed into a Heisman winner and an elite NFL prospect.
CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons are superstars and cornerstones on their sides of the ball, but Dallas doesn’t have the supplementary talent to win games in January. When the roster was healthier, Dallas ran through the regular season in 2023 on their way to a strong 12-5 season, only to be upset in the Wild Card by Green Bay. When the depth chart was beaten up, they could only limp to a 7-10 finish.
The prevalent issues in 2024 aren’t going to be solved by a single prospect. The offensive line was in a rebuilding phase with young players, no one outside of CeeDee Lamb could reliably make a play, and the defensive line was helpless.
But could one prospect potentially fix more than one hole? Travis Hunter can.
A lot of people seem confident that Hunter will commit to one position at the next level. I don’t believe so and you can bet Deion wouldn’t either.
In this case it isn’t hard to see Hunter play corner full-time and get ~20-25 receiver snaps a game. This makes Dallas incredibly difficult to game plan against and provides relief for a receiving corp that needs reinforcement without overshadowing or questioning Lamb’s alpha status.
It also lets defensive backs Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland do what they do best, make plays. Hunter can too but is much closer to the true shut-down corner than the former.
Dallas and Deion get the most marketable rookie possible who fills two needs and is the genuinely elite prospect to make such an aggressive move worth it.
How do they make it happen?
Projected Trade
Dallas receives: 1.02, 5th (via Det), 2026 5th
Cleveland receives: 1.12, 3.12, 5.11, 2026 1st, 2026 3rd, QB Trey Lance, TE Luke Schoonmaker
This value falls a little short of the 49ers trade up from 12th to first in 2021, but that cost factored in quarterback value in a loaded class and Miami was not as desperate to trade out (as they would trade back up afterwards). Here, Cleveland gets plenty of value to move off the second overall pick, stick in the first round with a good pick, and add plenty more value both this year and next. This would give the Browns their 13th pick to work with in the upcoming draft and their fifth in the top-100.
For Dallas, the price was always going to be hefty and that’ll make plenty of fans and executives alike nervous. However, fortune favors the bold and this front office will know how transcendent a prospect Hunter is.
This would be a rare move as trades into the top five for a non-quarterback don’t typically happen, especially within the last 10 years.
Top-8 Trades for Non-QB
2011 - Atlanta trades up to #6 for Julio Jones
2013 - Miami trades up to #3 for Dion Jordan
2013 - St. Louis trades up to #8 for Tavon Austin
2014 - Buffalo trades up to #4 for Sammy Watkins
2021 - Miami trades up to #6 for Jaylen Waddle
2023 - Houston trades up to #3 for Will Anderson Jr,
There is a bit of a caveat with the Miami move up as they still came out with net-positives after first trading down with San Francisco. Otherwise, the common trend here is that every trade up within the last 15 years was for either a receiver or pass rusher.
Most of them did not pan out. Jaylen Waddle is a great receiver but had they stuck at the 12th pick they could have landed either DeVonta Smith at the same position or an elite player at a premium position like Micah Parsons or Rashawn Slater.
Otherwise, aside from Houston’s move for Anderson, only Atlanta’s bet on Alabama’s Julio Jones paid off. It’s risky business, but Hunter is closer to the Julio-level prospect than the likes of Austin and Waddle. Granted, Sammy Watkins was also a sure bet.
Deion’ s Coaching Staff
Prime Time himself is more of the CEO branded head coach, who controls every aspect of the team on the football and business side, but does little when it comes to the Xs&Os of the offense and defense. That means the hiring of an offensive and defensive coordinator becomes crucial as quality play callers are in high demand through college and the league. Whom may he bring to Dallas to fill those roles?
Offensive Coordinator -
The most likely option here would be to bring his current OC at Colorado, Pat Shurmur, along with him. Shurmur has spent the majority of his career in the NFL, going up and down the coaching ladder from 1999 to 2021. It's only recently that he made the step to the collegiate level where he’s been on Deion’s staff for two years and the offensive play-caller for a year and a half.
Shurmur has been a head coach in the league for multiple years and an offensive coordinator for even longer, making him an easy fit. This move would make even more sense if the Cowboys aggressively pursued Shedeur, keeping continuity for their young quarterback at the next level.
However, Jerry Jones may also wish to keep their current offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer. Son of former NFL head coach Marty Schottenheimer, and born in Denver, Brian has been the offensive coordinator in Dallas for two seasons. Jones has a keen interest in keeping him around, going as far as letting him interview for their vacant head coaching position. Often this is a formality when a team is interested in bringing a coach in for a prominent coordinator role, or in this case keeping him.
Defensive Coordinator -
Much like Schottenheimer, the Cowboys may already have the answer in the building. Mike Zimmer, a longtime Minnesota Vikings head coach, has plenty of experience in the NFL and recently came back to coach the Dallas defense. Moreover, Zimmer followed Deion for two years as a consultant, first at Jackson State, and then at Colorado. The familiarity both between each other and then with the current roster would make this a very easy transition, possibly keeping both coordinators despite a head coaching change.
Otherwise, dipping back into the Colorado well, Deion could once again bring a coordinator with him in Robert Livingston. This hire would be far riskier as Livingston is light on coordinating experience and is much younger, 29 years younger than Zimmer. Livingston has only been a coordinator for one season but turned in impressive results. Previously, he had spent over a decade with the Cincinnati Bengals, working his way up from a scout to a defensive backs coach, even surviving the Marvin Lewis firing and sticking on Zac Taylor’s staff in the same role.