The Dallas Cowboys were in the headlines on Monday morning after parting ways with head coach Mike McCarthy, and they were back in the headlines by Monday night.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was dragged through the mud for waiting so long to get rid of McCarthy, which caused him to miss out on the chance to interview top coaching candidates including Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, and newly hired New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel.

But perhaps Jones had a backup plan all along?

According to Fox Sports insider Jordan Schultz, Jones reached out to Colorado head coach and former Cowboys great Deion Sanders about the open head-coaching position on Monday evening, and Sanders is reportedly intrigued by the job, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.Watch live sports online

“There is a mutual interest there, and I go back to about a year-and-a-half-ago when I had a former general manager say to me, ‘Watch Deion Sanders, he may be the next head coach of the Dallas Cowboys,’” Schefter said. “Well, there is mutual interest. We’ll see if that amps up, but the two sides have talked, they have touched base, and we’ll see if it goes anywhere.”

Sanders to the Cowboys would be the kind of splashy move that could reel back in a disinterested fanbase that mentally checked out on the team during the final third of the season.

Sanders in on-record stating he will only coach in the NFL if he’s coaching both of his sons, Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders and Colorado safety Shilo Sanders, both of whom will be in the 2025 draft class.

Because of that statement, FanDuel Sportsbook proposed a hypothetical trade in which the Cowboys send star quarterback Dak Prescott to the Tennessee Titans in exchange for the No. 1 overall pick, a 2025 fourth-round pick and a 2026 third-round pick.

The Cowboys would then presumably use the No. 1 overall pick to draft Shedeur as Prescott’s replacement — something that would seem like a non-negotiable if he were to leave Colorado for the NFL.

While a fun thought exercise, any Prescott trade will likely not happen for two reasons — Prescott has a no-trade clause in his new contract and the Cowboys would take a $103.2 million dead-cap hit if they traded Prescott pre-June 1 (the 2025 draft is April 24.)