The Dallas Cowboys made a surprising move by trading down in the first round of this year's draft. They moved down from No. 20 to No. 23 with their NFC Division rival, the Philadelphia Eagles, who moved up to secure wide receiver Makai Lemon. 

During a recent episode of the 'New Heights' podcast, Kansas City Chiefs' tight end, Travis Kelce, backed Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ aggressive approach. He also praised his bold decision regardless of the opponent.

“He [Jerry] wants to whoop everybody’s a**, not just the Eagles,” Kelce said. “So if he needs to trade, he’s not just, you know, not trading to one team.”

The rare intra-division trade between these teams happened for the second time. The Eagles had jumped to 10th overall for DeVonta Smith and the Cowboys slid to 12th overall, landing Micah Parsons in 2021.

The Cowboys also received two fourth-round picks (Nos. 114 and 137), turning their one pick into three prospects. 

During the post-draft conference on Day 3, Jones discussed the trade-down with the Eagles.

“If I eliminated (trading with) all the teams that I wanted to beat their a**, you wouldn’t have anybody left to trade with,” Jones stated.

The Kelce brothers (Jason and Travis) took an extreme 'liking' to his statement while reacting to the draft picks during their podcast. 

However, not everyone was satisfied with the division trade. The Pittsburgh Steelers were eyeing Makai Lemon for their team before the Cowboys interfered. 

Cowboys' Trade Draws Reaction from Steelers’ Owner

During an interview on the DVE Morning Show, Steelers' owner, Art Rooney II, discussed if there was any animosity regarding the trade-down incident.

“No hard feelings with Jerry," Rooney said. "I mean, those things happen in every draft where the team in front of you jumps in an picks somebody that you wanted, or somebody trades up in front of you and grabs somebody that you wanted.”

However, the disappointment on the Steelers’ side was quite evident during the draft. Makai Lemon was on the phone with the Steelers GM, Omar Khan, before the Cowboys-Eagles trade came through.

Jerry Jones also made it clear that this is how the draft works and does not wish to instigate any rivalry.

He went against the old-school philosophy once preached by his late friend, Al Davis: "Don’t even answer a call from your division.”

Jones was quite clear on differentiating between the game and business, focusing only on landing him his premier draft pick. He did not pay heed to any suggestion that came his way in trading picks.

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Written by

Archana Ramakrishnan

Edited by

Rishab Nandi