Why Hiring Deion Sanders Would Be a Disaster for Dallas

Urban Meyer. Kliff Kingsbury. Matt Rhule. Steve Spurrier. Even Nick Saban. All five made the jump from college head coach to the NFL. All, you can argue, were disasters. Meyer was the biggest of all. He was an outstanding college coach and he might be again someday, but he went 2-11 as the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

Kingsbury had his moments but went 28-37-1 overall in four years in Arizona. He should stick to running offenses as he has the Washington Commanders in this coming weekend’s NFC Divisional round playoffs. Rhule didn’t last through Year 2 in Carolina and is now turning Nebraska’s program back around in the college ranks. 

Spurrier and Saban are two of the sport’s all-time greats. Spurrier won 228 college games as head coach at Duke, Florida, and South Carolina. He spent two seasons in Washington in the NFL and went 12-20 before getting the axe. Saban spent two seasons at Miami and went 15-17 before jumping back to where he belonged.

Deion Sanders has nowhere near the amount of experience of any of these five coaches. Yet, his name is being tossed around as the Dallas Cowboys search for their next head coach. Mark these words: Hiring Deion Sanders will be an absolute, complete disaster for the Dallas Cowboys. Here’s why.

Experience

Since we mentioned it already, let’s talk experience. We know that Prime Time has zero NFL experience as a coach. Saban actually had prior NFL coaching experience as an assistant with Bill Belichick in Cleveland. Spurrier coached the Tampa Bay Bandits in the old USFL. Sanders actually only has nine years of coaching experience…total!

“But he’s a winner!” Is he? Prime Time coached two seasons each at the high school level in Texas. At something called Prime Prep, he went 8-7 as the head coach. In two more high school seasons at Triple A (WTF!) in Texas, Sanders went 9-14. 

In three seasons at the FCS powerhouse (cough, cough) Jackson State, Sanders had success going 27-6. His son Shedeur, of course, was his quarterback. When Colorado came calling prior to the 2023 season, Prime Time and family packed it up and headed for Boulder. Sure, Prime had some success this year, 9-4 overall, 7-2 in the Big 12. 

If you do the math, Sanders is 42-39 as a head coach at any level. He has zero NFL experience and he’s 13-12 as an FBS head coach. If you feel like that warrants him a job as the head coach of the most valuable sports franchise in the US, you’re delusional.

Nepotism

“The only way I would consider an NFL job is to coach my sons,” said Sanders when asked about NFL coaching jobs last week. It just doesn’t work that way in the NFL. You can’t simply start your own Prime Prep or pack the kids up for a couple years at Jackson State and everybody makes the team. This is the NFL. 

In the NFL, rosters are put together a couple different ways. One, of course, is through the draft. So, Prime wants his son Shedeur to play for him as head coach of the Cowboys. Okay, let’s play this out. 

As of now, Dallas owns the No.12 pick in the 2025 NFL draft. Shedeur is probably a top-5 pick and there are teams at the top of the draft board (Titans, Browns, Giants) that would definitely consider drafting the young Sanders. For Dallas to have a shot at Shedeur, they would have to trade up into one of those first picks. 

What would that take? Well, Carolina was in the same boat a few years ago. They wanted Bryce Young, so they shipped their best WR DJ Moore, the No. 9 and No. 61 (second round) overall picks in the 2023 draft and the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft (that gave the Bears Caleb Williams). Just so you know, over the past two seasons the Panthers have gone 7-27.

Now, do you really think Dallas is going to give up a stud (or two) and some serious draft capital to get Shedeur? Keep in mind, Shedeur is not a generational talent by any means and you could argue in favor of Cam Ward or even someone like Drew Allar. But the bigger reason…

Dak Isn’t Going Anywhere

The Cowboys just signed Dak Prescott to a huge contract extension – 4 years, $240 million. His salary in 2025? A cool $47.75 million. No. 1, there is no team in the NFL that would want to trade for any of that. No. 2, Prescott has helped Dallas reach the playoffs five times in nine seasons. The Cowboys have never made it past the Divisional Round. Dak is 2-5 in postseason starts. Sorry, no takers.

If you really think the Cowboys would release Prescott…you’re also delusional. Doing so before June 1 of this year, would result in a dead salary cap hit of over $103 million. Prescott may not be a Mahomes or an Allen, but he’s also not getting rub-n-tugs at the local massage parlor. Dallas isn’t dumping him like Cleveland dumped Deshaun Watson or even like Denver got rid of Russell Wilson.

With Prescott clearly in the picture, do you think Dallas would mortgage the future for a pretty good college quarterback just so their head coach could coach his son? (I’m pretty sure that’s laughter in the background).

Staff

You will hear it again and again at all levels of football. A head coach is only as good as the guys around him. Jerry Jones hired Mike McCarthy who had tons of experience as an NFL assistant and as an NFL head coach. Over his years in the business, McCarthy has developed connections and contacts with some of the game’s best. 

McCarthy was able to assemble a solid staff right out of the gate. Sanders has two years of FBS head coaching experience. Yes, everyone knows him, but that’s not the same as working with him. He may be able to draw some big names, but how well will everyone work together? Any coach will have this problem, but it’s magnified for someone with zero NFL coaching experience.

Cash Money

We almost forgot the issue of money. Right off the bat, hiring Sanders will cost the Cowboys $8 million. That’s the amount of Prime Time’s contract buyout at Colorado. Then, Dallas has to cough up somewhere in the neighborhood of another $8 million. 

The most recent data on NFL head coaching salaries puts the median in the $8M to $9M range per season. Mike MacDonald, who just finished his first season in Seattle, earned about $9 million this season. McCarthy’s contract reportedly averaged $8 million per season. Jim Harbaugh supposedly has a deal in place that paid him somewhere near $16 million this season.

Regardless, Sanders made $5.7 million this year at Colorado. So, figure at least $7.5 to $9 million in salary for 2025. A new contract would likely be for four years with some raises and incentives over the life of the deal. Unlike player contracts in the NFL, a coaches contract is usually fully guaranteed (unless language in the deal says otherwise). That means if Deion gets fired before the contract ends, the Cowboys still owe him the balance of the deal.

Then, don’t forget about the assistants that Sanders hires. That’ll be another $5 to $8 million to pay all of his staff. Most of those contracts will be guaranteed as well. If you do the math, the Cowboys are looking at somewhere around $50M to $70M just for the 2025 season. And, that’s just for the coaching staff.

Unintended Consequences

With Prime Time, you get more than just a coach. You get the constant reality show that comes along with him. Media is everywhere. He’s got documentaries on various networks. Everybody wants a piece of the action. Can an inexperienced head coach handle all the distractions that come along with such a high profile job like the Cowboys?

Now, maybe it’s a little early but, is Sanders really that good of a coach? I mean, 13-12 in two seasons at Colorado? Yes, this season was a good one – 9-4 overall. But, keep in mind, Sanders and the Buffaloes lost games to Nebraska, which finished 7-6, and Kansas, which ended up 5-7. Colorado actually got spanked by the Jayhawks too. I would think that if you’re going to hire a guy from the college ranks, you would want someone who beats everybody he’s supposed to.

What will happen if Dallas hires Sanders is that he will get fired. It might be a year or two, but he will feel the wrath of Dallas fans, the media – Stephen A. Smith will make a living off of this – and, ultimately, Jerry Jones. That will set the franchise back another however many years. It’s been since 1995 that the Cowboys reached an NFC championship game. That’s also the last time they played in and won a Super Bowl. 

Hiring Deion Sanders will result in Dallas going through this same process in two to five years and will set the franchise back further from its goal. If you need examples, look no further than Jacksonville after Meyer and the Panthers currently after firing Rhule.

See Deion’s Odds of Becoming Cowboys Next Coach Here