{"id":607816,"date":"2026-04-26T17:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/607816\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T17:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:34:10","slug":"jerry-jones-al-davis-taught-me-not-to-trade-in-division-but-i-answered-the-eagles-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/607816\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerry Jones: Al Davis taught me not to trade in-division, but I answered the Eagles’ call"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Cowboys were on the clock before the 20th pick in the 2026 NFL draft, the Eagles called with a trade proposal. The Cowboys accepted, and the Eagles moved up and drafted wide receiver Makai Lemon. In making that deal, Cowboys owner and General Manager Jerry Jones disregarded one of the first lessons he ever learned: Don\u2019t trade with a division rival.<\/p>\n

That lesson was taught to him by former Raiders owner and General Manager Al Davis, who served as an early mentor when Jones bought the Cowboys. But it\u2019s a lesson Jones said he doesn\u2019t agree with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really pay much attention to who I\u2019m talking to,\u201d Jones said when asked about trading within the NFC East. \u201cAl Davis, probably the first thing he tried to put in my head was, \u2018Don\u2019t even answer a call from your division. Jerry, this is all about strategizing against your division opponents because you play them twice and you can\u2019t forget that edge there. That\u2019s a very strategic edge.\u2019 So I didn\u2019t take that lesson from Al.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones has had an inconsistent approach to heeding Davis\u2019s lesson. Last year, when the Eagles wanted to trade for Micah Parsons, Jones wouldn\u2019t even discuss it with them<\/a>, instead trading him to a non-division opponent, the Packers. But Jones has made other trades with the Eagles, including the 2021 draft-day trade that resulted in the Eagles taking DeVonta Smith and the Cowboys taking Parsons.<\/p>\n

Lemon wouldn\u2019t be an Eagle if not for Jones\u2019 help; the Steelers were about to take Lemon at No. 21 before the Eagles got him at No. 20. If Lemon makes big plays twice a year against the Cowboys, Jones may regret ignoring Davis\u2019s advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Cowboys were on the clock before the 20th pick in the 2026 NFL draft, the Eagles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-607816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}