Shedeur Sanders’ name has started to swirl in trade chatter, and one analyst has already put the Dallas Cowboys on the list of possible destinations.
The conversation picked up on Wednesday after ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Sanders had hired an agent. Schefter wrote, "Browns QB Shedeur Sanders, who went through draft night and the early part of his NFL career without an agent, has signed with Adie von Gontard, CEO of Young Money APAA Sports, for representation," Schefter reported.
That move has set off plenty of speculation. Sanders going from having no agent to bringing one in stands out on its own, and with less than a month left before the NFL trade deadline on Nov. 10, plenty of people are reading the timing as meaningful. The idea gaining traction is simple: Sanders may want out of Cleveland.
CBS Sports’ John Breech is among those who see the hire as a possible sign of a trade push, and he floated Dallas as a fit because of Jerry Jones’ connection to Deion Sanders, who spent five seasons with the Cowboys during his Hall of Fame career.
"If you're making a list of landing spots for Shedeur Sanders, you might as well include the Cowboys," he said. "Deion Sanders spent five seasons in Dallas during his Hall of Fame career, and, given that fact alone, Jerry Jones might be intrigued by the idea of bringing in Shedeur as a possible backup to Dak Prescott."
It’s easy to see how the dots get connected. It’s also hard to make the football case for Dallas actually doing it.
The Cowboys already have Sam Howell in place as a backup, and the source material makes the point that he’s the more proven option. Dallas is also developing Joe Milton on the practice squad.
In a win-now setup, that matters. The Cowboys also don’t have the luxury of carrying three quarterbacks when roster spots are needed for more help on defense.
There is at least a long-view argument for Sanders. He brings upside, and there’s at least a small chance he could eventually become the replacement for Dak Prescott, who will be 35 when his contract expires after 2028. But that’s a future problem, not a present one, and Dallas can’t afford to plan that far ahead right now.
The more immediate reality is that the Cowboys don’t need quarterback help. Their attention, and their draft capital, should be going toward fixing the defensive issues they already have.
And even if Dallas were interested, Sanders might not be. He’d likely want a place where he has a real path to starting, and that isn’t what the Cowboys can offer.
In Other News...
Cowboys Already Have One Ugly Debate At 2-3
The Cowboys 2-3 start has already pushed the conversation past disappointment and into blame, which is never a comfortable place for a team this early in the season. Around Dallas, the usual list of culprits is starting to take shape, with owner and general manager Jerry Jones, head coach Brian Schottenheimer, defensive coordinator Christian Parker, player execution and injuries all landing under the microscope as fans try to make sense of what has gone wrong.
A fan survey is now feeding into that larger debate, asking whether the Cowboys are headed in the right direction. It fits the mood of a season that has moved quickly from expectation to unease, and it says plenty about how thin the margin has become when a team with this much attention is already trying to answer questions about its direction instead of its ceiling. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys May Have One Fix For Problems On Both Sides
The Cowboys early-season frustrations on both sides of the ball have pushed the conversation back to an old football truth: when the ground game works, a lot of other problems get easier to manage. Dallas has been trying to find more balance on offense while also looking for ways to help a defense that has been pressed too often, and the rushing attack has become a clear area to clean up. It has been a quiet slide so far, with the unit sitting near the bottom of the league and Javonte Williams not producing the kind of rushing yards Dallas needs from him.
A stronger commitment to the run could give the Cowboys longer drives, better field position and some relief for a defense that would benefit from a little less time on the field. That makes the upcoming game against the Green Bay Packers a useful measuring stick, because the path to fixing one side of the ball may run directly through the other. If Dallas can get the rushing game moving, it might not solve everything, but it would at least give the team a more stable place to start. [Read more 🡒]
Why Chad Hennings Made Cowboys No 96 Mean So Much More
For the Cowboys, No. 96 will always carry a little extra weight because of Chad Hennings, the defensive tackle whose path to Dallas was anything but ordinary. Before becoming a fixture on the line and a respected locker room presence for nearly a decade, Hennings served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force and arrived in the NFL already well into his 20s, bringing a level of discipline and perspective that fit neatly with a franchise built on toughness and expectation.
What made Hennings so memorable was not just the football resume, though three Super Bowl rings make that case pretty quickly. It was the combination of his military background, his late start in pro football and the way he became a steady defensive force once he finally settled in with Dallas. Among all the players who wore 96, Hennings stood out because his story gave the number a meaning that went well beyond production on Sundays. [Read more 🡒]