If Troy Aikman leaves broadcasting after this season, he already knows who he would hire first. The ESPN analyst and Hall of Fame quarterback said Thursday that if he were running an NFL team, his first call would be to the San Francisco 49ers to ask what it would take to get head coach Kyle Shanahan. The comment, made on 96.7 The Ticket in Dallas, put Aikman’s name back at the center of the league’s coaching conversation.
“I’ve been asked a lot of questions here, certainly over the last several weeks, about any aspirations that I may have of going in a front office,” Aikman said. “Or ‘Who would you hire as your head coach?’ If I was in a position to hire someone as a head coach, [the] first call I’d make is to the 49ers and say, ‘How much is it going to take to get Kyle Shanahan? Because I think he’s that good.”
What Troy Aikman said about Kyle Shanahan
Troy Aikman has said it before. In 2022 he named Shanahan as the head coach he would hire if he ever ran a team, and in 2024 he raised the same idea when the Chicago Bears had a vacancy, asking whether a team could give up picks to make a deal for Shanahan. This time the context is different. Aikman is in the last year of his ESPN contract, and last month he put the chance that he leaves broadcasting after this season at 50-50. He has said he does not consider the network’s offer to stay a serious one.
Shanahan is in his 10th season with the 49ers, and he has taken the team to two Super Bowls. The 49ers gave him a contract extension this past September; his previous deal ran through the 2027 season. CBS Sports ranked him the second-best offensive play-caller in the league entering 2026, behind only Sean McVay. Troy Aikman praised the 49ers as well coached, disciplined and physical, and said their best players set the tone in the locker room.
Why Troy Aikman and the Cowboys keep coming up
The Dallas Cowboys are the team most often tied to Aikman. Owner Jerry Jones has said hiring Troy Aikman for a leading role is “very possible” and told listeners not to rule it out. Aikman has said he would welcome a conversation with Jones, and he has not ruled out the idea himself. The two have already disagreed in public about how to hire a coach: Jones has said there is no link between paying a head coach and winning, while Aikman has said he would give up significant assets for Shanahan.
The timing adds to the talk. Shanahan and the 49ers visit the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium on Sunday, so Dallas will see the coach Aikman wants in person. Troy Aikman is also reported to have a strained working relationship with broadcast partner Joe Buck, and his contract situation has left his future open. He has long said he wants to run a team, and the opening in Dallas is the one that fits his history.
Troy Aikman and the tampering question
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, writing for NBC Sports, called the comments potential pre-tampering. His point was narrow: Troy Aikman is not running a team, so the comments are not tampering under league rules. Florio added that it could technically be “tampering light” if Aikman is still working for the Miami Dolphins, where he served as a consultant during the team’s latest search for a general manager and head coach. An October report said his formal agreement with Miami was limited to those two searches.
One part of the story is still unknown. When Aikman was consulting with the Dolphins, did he advise Miami to call about Shanahan, and did the team do it? Florio raised the question in his column, and neither Troy Aikman nor the Dolphins has answered it. What is known is that the comments give Shanahan leverage in his dealings with the 49ers, and they put Aikman’s coaching wish list on the record before he has a team to hire for.