Stephen A. Smith Makes Bold Claim About Deion Sanders, Dallas Cowboys
01/15/2025 01:10 PM
Stephen A. Smith continued to make the case for the Dallas Cowboys hiring Deion Sanders.
The First Take pundit pitched Sanders for the Cowboys' head coaching job during the season. Naturally, Smith pounced on reports of Jerry Jones speaking to the Colorado head coach after parting ways with Mike McCarthy on Monday.
Smith quickly identified Sanders as his preferred choice to replace McCarthy. He kept arguing for Coach Prime on Wednesday, claiming the former cornerback could take the Cowboys somewhere they haven't gone since he played for them in 1995.
"I think the ceiling would be possibly an NFC Championship Game," Smith said on First Take. "I mean, I'm assuming everybody's healthy, of course."
Health is a key component to that prediction, as Dallas endured several significant injuries during McCarthy's final season.
Dak Prescott missed the last nine games of a 7-10 campaign, and DeMarcus Lawrence's season ended in late September. Trevon Diggs got hurt right as fellow All-Pro cornerback DaRon Bland made his season debut in Week 12, and an ankle injury sidelined Micah Parsons for four games.
While Smith is confident in Sanders' coaching prowess, his reasons for wanting Coach Prime in Dallas go beyond the Xs and Os. He believes the hiring would represent a move forward for a franchise that didn't feel steady even through three straight 12-5 seasons.
"There was a lot of chaos 'cause we saw disorganization at times. We saw a lot of people just not prioritizing when they should prioritize. We paid attention to a lot of those things, and we saw Jerry Jones in front of the cameras and all of that other stuff," Smith said.
"And we found ourselves just waiting for the black cat to come running around 'cause we knew -- we still know -- that's what happens to this franchise."
Smith sees Sanders as the solution to those problems. He believes the Hall of Famer would command instant authority.
"There are very, very few human beings on the planet that have Prime Time's cachet on the field," Smith said. "But it was equal off the field in terms of what he brought to the table."
The ESPN personality added that Sanders won't be "usurped" by Jones' constant public presence.
"Jerry's penchant and his insatiable appetite to be in front of the camera and the microphone and speaking about the Dallas Cowboys is not going to faze or dim Prime Time's light one bit," Smith predicted. "And because that's the reality, I think that's why he's the right man for the job."
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