​Jerry Jones and Deion Sanders’ relationship could make a Shedeur Sanders trade possible, originally published by The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here. Shedeur Sanders’ rookie season with the Cleveland Browns was a wild ride, and now trade chatter is heating up. Rumors keep tying him to the Dallas Cowboys thanks to Coach Prime’s longtime link with Jerry Jones, even though the move doesn’t make much football sense. Sanders slipped to the fifth round, landing with Cleveland at No. 144 in the 2025 draft. He finally got a chance to start in Week 12, but the performance was mixed. Over seven starts, he went 3-4 with 1,400 passing yards, seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions, ranking near the bottom in QBR while showing occasional flashes of high-end ability, including a 364-yard, three-touchdown game against the Tennessee Titans.
Cleveland fired Kevin Stefanski in the offseason and brought in Todd Monken to run the show. Monken now oversees a wide-open quarterback race featuring Sanders, Deshaun Watson and Dillon Gabriel. With that depth chart, rival teams have reportedly asked Cleveland about trading Sanders as recently as late June. That’s where Dallas enters the conversation. Analyst Cooper Kleinberg floated the Cowboys as a potential landing spot, suggesting Jones “could acquire Sanders for relatively cheap and give him the chance to develop behind Dak Prescott as the long-term backup.” It’s notable to link Dallas to Sanders given Jones’ decades-long friendship with Shedeur’s father, Deion Sanders, a Cowboys Hall of Famer and Ring of Honor member.
From a football standpoint, the Cowboys aren’t a natural fit for Shedeur because he wouldn’t be in line to start. Dak Prescott is entrenched as the starter, and Dallas typically doesn’t allocate resources to develop future quarterbacks behind him. Kleinberg even acknowledged the rumor is largely for entertainment, noting the Cowboys’ quiet offseason and adding that Sanders would disrupt the status quo. Still, the trade chatter persists because Jones enjoys pursuing high-profile, relationship-driven moves, even when the roster doesn’t necessarily require them.