Over the past few days, several media members have brought up the possibility of ESPN’s Nick Saban ending his newfound career in media to return to the sidelines as a head coach, whether that be at the NFL level or back in college. And on Wednesday, Colin Cowherd and NFL insider Albert Breer discussed the possibility of Saban returning to coaching at arguably the highest profile spot in all of sports, as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
On paper, the idea is a bit out of left field. Brian Schottenheimer, who was hired as the new head coach of the team back in January, hasn’t even gotten the chance to prove whether he is or isn’t a quality NFL head coach yet.
However, Cowherd, joined by Breer on Wednesday’s edition of The Herd, took the recent speculation about Saban potentially returning to coaching and ran with it, laying out the argument that Saban could satisfy any itch to return to coaching with a team like the Cowboys who has plenty of the tools in place to be successful right away.
“Okay, I’m going to throw this at you, Albert,” said Cowherd. “And you have a sense of history. So he’s the greatest college football coach of all time. He goes to ESPN for a couple of years and he’s been an absolute home run as an analyst. Got a little itch and there’s… He’s not going to Jacksonville. But Brian Schottenheimer is over his skis and Jerry Jones says, ‘I don’t want one of these NFL egos.’ You know what Jerry likes to do. He likes to hire guys where they feel like they owe him a little. And Jerry could go to Saban and go, ‘Okay, this Schottenheimer thing doesn’t work.’ Jayden Daniels and Jalen Hurts. I need a guy that knows college personnel.
“I’m just saying, Dallas, I don’t think Saban would go to New York, but if you’re talking about a guy, just ego, best college coach ever, absolute five-star analyst on TV, he’s not challenged, he’s still youthful, sharp as a tack, the Dallas Cowboys call. He’s not taking that call?”
“It makes some sense for sure,” replied Breer. “It’s not all that far from where he put down roots over the last two decades. I mean, the Giants are always going to be interesting because, as you know, the Mara’s were fascinated with Nick. And I think there was a point in the 90s where they were trying to hire him from Michigan State. So they’ve had an interest in him going back that far, right? So, I think it’s the first one that NFL people always consider is like, would the Giants do it because there was that interest about 20 years ago? The Cowboys are interesting because they do have a lot of win-now elements.
“He could come in there and really go into a place that’s set up for a strong coach. And it’s interesting because I think the one thing about Dallas that people misunderstand is, yes, Jerry’s involved in football. But the coach is involved in scouting too. Like, the coach is involved in putting the team together.”
“He could come in there and go into a place that’s set up for a strong coach.”@colincowherd and @AlbertBreer discuss the possibility of Nick Saban returning to coaching… for the Dallas Cowboys pic.twitter.com/so0JaInCji
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) July 16, 2025
While Breer largely entertained the possibility, he did share some reservations. Most notably, he believes a move like this would represent a “move away from the spotlight” for Jerry Jones, which he isn’t sure will happen.
“I think if Jerry was going to do this, part of it would be… Are you willing to take a backseat and move away from the spotlight for a little bit to see if Nick Saban can come and do it? But for a lot of different reasons, it does make sense,” added Breer. “So, look, I think Schottenheimer is going to do a better job than most people do. But I mean, I just think if you want to line the whole thing up and say he needs to go to a brand name, you know, he needs to go to one of the flagship franchises, the part of the country that it’s in and the way they’re set up, I could see Saban working in Dallas.”
Cowherd would go on to add that he believes Saban has some regrets about how his head coaching tenure in the NFL went.
“I think Nick deep down thinks, ‘Hell, I would have won in Miami if the doctor would have said okay with Drew Brees.’ And I think Nick is so hyper competitive, it sticks in his craw,” added Cowherd. “I really do. And I don’t think it’s crazy. I don’t think it’s nuts. There you go. I’m nuts. Whatever, I don’t care.”
It sure seems like if this move was going to happen, it would have happened before Schottenheimer was brought into the fold in Dallas. But nonetheless, it Cowherd seems quite convicted about the possibility of Saban landing in Dallas.