Saints players kind of wanted Sean Payton to become the Cowboys head coach

DENVER, COLORADO - OCTOBER 26: Head coach Brian Schottenheimer of the Dallas Cowboys and head coach Sean Payton of the Denver Broncos shake hands after Denver's 44-24 win in the game at Empower Field At Mile High on October 26, 2025 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Death, taxes, and rumors of Sean Payton joining the Dallas Cowboys as their next head coach. This was way of life for a long time and how things rolled concerning the Cowboys. For just about every year of the Jason Garrett era the Cowboys were connected to Sean Payton given his success leading the New Orleans Saints and past serving on Bill Parcells' staff in Dallas.

For the most part those waters receded after Mike McCarthy was hired to coach the Cowboys, just given that Dallas finally got a new coach and that it wasn't Payton. It was over. Or so it seemed.

Four years ago there was new life on this front when ProFootballTalk reported that Dallas actually had a deal in place to trade for Payton in the early days of 2019; however, this came undone when Anthony Davis requested a trade away from the New Orleans Pelicans. This may sound random, but it was reportedly the case given the common denominators of leadership between the two New Orleans franchises. Simply put, they did not want to lose two icons (Davis and Payton) in the same calendar year.

Coincidentally it was Davis who later made his way to Dallas thanks to a different trade of a volatile nature (no need to bring up old wounds more than that). Sean Payton was also ultimately traded away himself, following a year away from coaching, to the Denver Broncos. He just took them to the AFC Championship Game in his third season with the club.

This is all a little bit relevant now because of something that Terron Armstead said. Armstead was a guest on the St. Brown Podcast and was asked by Amon-Ra St. Brown for his thoughts on Dan Campbell (another former Cowboy, everything is always connected) when they were in New Orleans together. Armstead noted that Saints players were (he said this somewhat tongue-in-cheek) kind of rooting for Sean Payton to join the Cowboys because of all of the rumors that were out there. He was saying this because they had that much belief in Dan Campbell who they thought would become the next head coach in that hypothetical.

"We were like.... if Sean Payton goes to Dallas, Dan Campbell gonna be our head coach."

Five-time Pro Bowl OT Terron Armstead reveals that, if Sean Payton had taken the Cowboys job back in 2019, the players would've pushed hard for Dan Campbell to be the new Saints head coach pic.twitter.com/feu46efW2R

- St. Brown Podcast (@StBrownPodcast) February 19, 2026

Armstead never specifically mentions the year 2019 in this clip so it is hard to know why that was thrown out. All Anthony Davis, Sean Payton, and Dan Campbell points aside, Jason Garrett was firmly the Cowboys head coach in 2019. In fact, in early 2019 he and the Cowboys were coming off of a playoff win (amazingly against the Seattle Seahawks and Brian Schottenheimer as the offensive coordinator... all connected!).

The Cowboys did not bring Jason Garrett back after the 2019 season ended which is when they hired Mike McCarthy. Again, it is hard to know why 2019 was included here given that it wasn't specifically mentioned, the Anthony Davis part of the story is the only thing that ties anything to that year.

Do you think Sean Payton would still be coaching the Cowboys if Dallas had traded for him in 2019? Or would they have moved on at some point since then?