Jerry Jones Reacts to Cowboys, Sean Payton Speculation

Ever since former Saints coach Sean Payton stepped away from the league in January, rumors began about where the coach could end up in the future.

One team continuing to pop up in conversations is the Cowboys. Payton worked on the Cowboys coaching staff from 2003 to ’05, when he was an assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was asked about the potential for his friend to join the staff and replace Mike McCarthy. He quickly shut down any rumors of Payton coming out back to coach the Cowboys.

“Sean Payton shouldn’t be out there,” Jones said, via the Fort-Worth Star Telegram. “For him, the Cowboys, that’s just sheer out of the air. It’s well known we’re good friends and we think a lot of him as a head coach. But in this case, asking the way you’re asking, he shouldn’t be a conversation piece.”

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It doesn’t sound like Payton plans on returning to a football coaching staff in the immediate future, anyway. Right now, the 58-year-old is expected to join Fox’s broadcasting crew for NFL Sunday next season when Jimmie Johnson cannot make an appearance.

After last season, it became a topic of serious speculation that McCarthy would be fired by Dallas, though Jones made it clear that the current coach would return for the 2022 season.

“Mike has got an opportunity here to win a Super Bowl,” Jones said. “That’s really the measurement that I look at. But it’s also an eternity between right now and next year.”

After going 12–5 during the regular season last year, the Cowboys unexpectedly lost in the wild-card playoff round to the 49ers.

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