Deion Sanders recalls conversation with Jerry Jones about Cowboys job: 'I had a lot of praying to do'

After the Dallas Cowboys mutually parted ways with head coach Mike McCarthy, one name quickly jumped to the forefront of the search. Deion Sanders immediately came up as a potential replacement, and he even received a call from Jerry Jones about the job.

Coach Prime, of course, turned Colorado around in 2024. The Buffaloes went from 4-8 in 2023 to 9-4 this past season, including an Alamo Bowl berth. All the while, Sanders’ son Shedeur was getting ready to declare for the NFL Draft – further fueling speculation Deion could go to the league with him.

Jones’ phone call indicated he had interest in hiring Deion Sanders as head coach. As for how far along things went, Sanders recalled his thought process on The Rich Eisen Show.

” I had a lot of praying to do,” Sanders said on Radio Row ahead of Super Bowl LIX. “Praying and weighing. And I’m always led directly and correctly.”

Sanders didn’t receive a formal interview with the Cowboys, though, as the franchise moved to promote offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to replace McCarthy. Rumors swirled around his candidacy, though, and NFL Network reported Sanders asked for more NIL and staffing resources during his conversations with Colorado.

But the call from Jones stuck with Sanders. His brain went a mile per minute, and in true Jerry Jones fashion, he made quite an impression.

“It was great,” Sanders said. “It made me think. First of all, Jerry’s one of those types of guys – he’s like myself – that you’ve got to have an opinion. You’ve got to make a statement, you’ve got to respond because he provokes so much thought.

“So when he calls and we had our little discussion and our conversation, you hang up and you start thinking, ‘Wow, that’s something.’ You just weigh everything. And then, you go out there. You go way out there with it, like, ‘Let me see, now if I did this, I would probably get a helicopter to fly into work every day. … I could stay in my own home and get a helicopter to fly in every day. Land right there on the field, right beside to Jerry. This could work.'”

Ultimately, Sanders is staying put at Colorado, where he’ll look to build on last season’s success. The Buffaloes added 17 players from the transfer portal and have 14 freshmen coming in. The headliner of the group is elite quarterback Julian “JuJu” Lewis, who will compete with Liberty transfer Kaidon Salter to be the heir apparent to Shedeur Sanders in 2025.