Arch Manning is the hottest name in college football. Nick Saban is the greatest coach in the history of college football. And the Cleveland Browns are one of the worst franchises in sports. What do they have to do with each other? If Colin Cowherd is correct, they're all destined for each other.
Cowherd laid out the links between all these pieces on his show on Wednesday, suggesting if the Browns could land Manning in the draft, Saban would come out of retirement to coach in Cleveland.
Browns owner Jimmy Haslem is closely tied to the Manning family and NFL super agent Jimmy Sexton, who represents Saban. According to Cowherd, these connections are "the worst kept secret in the South."
"This is not a conspiracy theory… this story is a poorly kept secret. The Mannings, Haslem, Jimmy Sexton, Nick Saban" – Colin Cowherd on the Cleveland Browns chasing Arch Manning and Nick Saban pic.twitter.com/BzIBfBeyRM
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 23, 2025
"This is not a conspiracy theory," Cowherd said. "Haslam's circle of trust, according to an article in The Athletic last year, is the Manning family and Jimmy Sexton and Bill Parcells. Sexton is Nick Saban's agent...Saban is incredibly close to not only Jimmy Haslam, but Saban's close to the Manning family as well. And so Saban, if he could land, I'm told, a top quarterback — like [Jim] Harbaugh going to the Chargers for Herbert — he would take a phone call for the NFL."
That quarterback is obviously the projected No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft: Arch Manning.
Grading Colin Cowherd's Arch-Saban-Browns take: C
Cowherd isn't saying anything we didn't already know. The links between the Mannings, Saban and the Browns have been around for a while. The real question is how real any of this is...Would Saban really feel confident enough in Arch to jump back into coaching? Cowherd is pointing to the answer being a resounding yes.
All of this is hypothetical on several levels. First, we don't know if Arch is even going to declare for the 2026 NFL Draft. We don't know if the Browns will have the No. 1 pick. We don't know if Arch will still be considered the top option after his first season as a start at Texas.
That's why the take gets a C. It's valid speculation, but there are so many variables to untangle before this can go from conspiracy theory to even sniffing reality.