'Good sources' have told Michael Irvin that Deion Sanders would take Cowboys job if Dallas drafts Shedeur Sanders

DENVER — Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders go way back.

All the way back to the Dallas Cowboys’ Super Bowl XXX win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Tempe, Ariz., to be exact.

So when the five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver has something to say about the Colorado head football coach, it’s at least worth a listen.

In an appearance on The Herd With Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports this week, Irvin was asked whether or not Coach Prime would take the Dallas Cowboys job if the franchise drafted his son and Buffs quarterback, Shedeur Sanders. His response? Emphatic.

“I believe 100 percent and I can tell you, good sources have told me that,” Irvin laughed. “Great sources have told me that. That’s all I can say like that without violating anything else.”

A few things:

1. As bad as the Dallas Cowboys (3-7) have been this season, Mike McCarthy is still the head coach and is 45-32 over his nearly five-season tenure with the club. He is in the final year of a five-year deal signed in 2020, so there’s a very real possibility that the job could open up after the season. But that hasn’t happened yet, despite more than a few talking heads assuming McCarthy would get the ax after last year’s home playoff loss to Green Bay dropped him to 1-3 in the postseason with the Cowboys.

2. As bad as the Dallas Cowboys have been this season, it’s far from a guarantee that they will be picking high enough to select Shedeur — who’s now widely considered to be the first QB to come off the board in next April’s NFL draft. There are currently seven teams with a worse record than the Cowboys, and it’s a safe bet that at least one of those teams is going to want to draft a franchise quarterback. (Although Coach Prime has said in the past that he would attempt to steer his son to the right team.)

3. As bad as the Dallas Cowboys have been this season, they just gave their current franchise quarterback, Dak Prescott, a four-year, $240 million extension a couple of months ago. And, according to ESPN, $231 million of that is guaranteed. Prescott’s season was finished after he decided to have surgery on a torn hamstring earlier this month. But would Dallas really want to move on so soon? This isn’t exactly a Russell Wilson situation.

4. Not sure if you noticed, but things are going pretty well for Deion Sanders at CU. His Buffs are on a collision course with the College Football Playoff. His two-way star, Travis Hunter, appears destined to win the Heisman Trophy. And Shedeur’s potential replacement at QB1, four-star recruit Julian Lewis, just decommitted from USC and recruiting analysts expect him to commit to Prime and the Buffs.

5. Even if Coach Prime wanted to take over as Cowboys head coach — and he has said no such thing publicly, in fact, quite the opposite — there’s one other very obvious thing that needs to happen first: Cowboys owner, president and general manager Jerry Jones has to offer it to him. Given the level of control Prime demands before he takes a job, that is far from a guarantee.

So, all of this is a long way of saying a lot of things need to happen for Irvin’s scenario to play out. Which makes it unlikely it will ever happen.