Jerry Jones Reveals Why He Did Trade That Allowed Eagles to Draft Makai Lemon

Many were shocked to see the Dallas Cowboys agree to a trade with the division rival Philadelphia Eagles during the first round of the 2026 NFL draft.

The Eagles sent the Cowboys two fourth-round picks - Nos. 114, which was used to draft Florida cornerback Devin Moore, and 137 overall, which was used on Alabama edge-rusher LT Overton - to move up from 23rd to 20th overall, where they took USC wide receiver Makai Lemon.

The trade had Cowboys fans fired up on social media with several calling out team owner/general manager Jerry Jones for doing the deal in the first place given he served up an A.J. Brown replacement to a division foe.

But when Jones spoke to reporters after the draft, he explained exactly why he traded with Philadelphia.

"If you eliminate all the teams that I want to beat their [expletive], you wouldn’t have anybody to trade with, so to speak," Jones said. "Yeah, Philadelphia has a certain edge to it, but you could always rationalize and say, ‘Well, I'd like to have some success with that trade,’ but at the end of the day, I got a bigger grin out of it than they did.”

Cowboys fans likely had bad flashbacks to the last time the two teams pulled off a first-round trade.

Back in 2021, Philadelphia sent a third-rounder (84th overall) to Dallas to move up from 12 to 10 and pick Heisman Trophy-winning WR DeVonta Smith, who's recorded three 1,000-yard seasons and scored 31 touchdowns since.

Jones also divulged that one of the earliest pieces of advice he received when he took over the Cowboys was not to trade within the division - advice he's clearly ignored.

"Al Davis, probably the first thing he tried to put in my head was, ‘Don't 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't forget that edge there. That's a very strategic edge.' So I didn't take that lesson from Al," Jones added.

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This story was originally published April 26, 2026 at 5:00 PM.