Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones (right) talks with Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie before an NFL football game at AT&T Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Arlington.
Smiley N. Pool/Staff Photographer
It’s something of a surprise that the NFL draft — massive production that it has become — doesn’t include envelopes, carefully guarded by the good folks at PricewaterhouseCoopers, to announce the winners. Turns out it’s unnecessary. Winners have been and will continue to be declared for the next few days, and praise for the Cowboys’ draft is going full throttle around the country.
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Did it come at a price too easily ignored?
To get those extra picks, the Cowboys sent the 20th selection to Philadelphia, a move now viewed with infamous suspicion in Pittsburgh since Steelers GM Omar Khan was on the phone with USC wide receiver Makai Lemon (the Steelers held the 21st pick) when the Cowboys and Eagles struck the deal. Surely a fine move by Dallas to build its Day 3 portfolio, but what about the cost of allowing Eagles GM Howie Roseman — basically the NFL’s wizard of the draft for the last decade — to conduct his first-round magic?
It’s now a league where everyone trades with everyone, but it didn’t start out that way. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said an early piece of advice he received from the Raiders’ Al Davis, perhaps his biggest NFL mentor, was to avoid doing what the Cowboys just willingly did.
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“Probably the first thing he really tried to put in my head, was, “Man, don’t even answer a call from inside your division. This is all about strategizing against your division opponents, and you play them twice.’ I didn’t take that lesson,’’ Jones said.
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His son, Stephen, explained the reason for the change in philosophy that allows them to deal with Roseman or with San Francisco or other NFC rivals all pushing for the same Super Bowl.
“I mean we traded twice with the 49ers already this offseason. The thing I would say is it goes both ways, right?’’ Stephen said. “And he’s helping us do our job, too. We really felt great that we’d get our guy [Lawrence] and pick up those two fours, and we think we may have gotten two great football players with those fours. So you just need to have confidence in what you’re doing.’’
With those two fourth-round additions, the Cowboys took Florida cornerback Devin Moore and Alabama edge rusher LT Overton. It seems unlikely, at least as rookies, that either Smith or Overton are as likely to make the Eagles pay for that trade as Lemon might be to find the end zone against Dallas. Does anyone review the trade then? But clearly there’s a long-term approach to these things that goes beyond this season. And if you’re trying to build a roster, especially for a team coming off 7-10 and 7-9-1 seasons, you’re going to have to use everything at your disposal.
“It’s not just picking up a phone,” Jerry Jones said. “There’s a lot of stuff going on, and you need to know your universe real good. If you eliminate all the teams that I want to beat their ass, you wouldn’t have anybody to trade with.’’
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Newly drafted Dallas Cowboys defensive player Caleb Downs (left) and Malachi Lawrence of UFC pose with their first round jerseys following their introductory press conferences at The Star in Frisco, April 24, 2026. The Cowboys 5 Super Bowl trophies are pictured as well.
Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News
Jones made the point that the Cowboys have five first-round picks on defense that they did not have at this time a year ago. That’s Downs, Lawrence, Rashan Gary (Packers, 2019), Kenny Clark (Packers, 2016) and Quinnen Williams (Jets, 2019). That sort of makeover should begin to minimize any residual anger from the team’s Micah Parsons trade in September. But the arrival of defensive coordinator Christian Parker from Philadelphia will have to be more important than any single player addition if this team is going to approach the balance it needs in order to return to the playoffs.
Parker gained lots of pieces for his chessboard this weekend at The Star, none more significant (the queen, I suppose) than Downs.
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“The communication of this guy is just different,” head coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “He’s not asking approval; he’s driving the defense. For a young guy to do that at Alabama playing for Nick Saban and then to go into a completely different defense in Ohio State, he’s never wavered and that jumped off the film, that command.’’
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A take-charge safety was at the top of the Cowboys’ needs when last season ended with a ragtag group of New York Giants blowing up Dallas 34-17. Put a check mark next to that one, along with new coordinator, edge rushers and the rest.
The Cowboys’ ultimate makeover is incomplete, but it’s headed the right direction. The next job is to make the Eagles pay for that in some fashion.