It felt like a shocker in the moment. During the 2026 NFL Draft, the Dallas Cowboys made two trades in the first round.
The first of these was shocking in a joyful sense as they moved up to select Caleb Downs, and it all happened thanks to the Miami Dolphins being willing to do business with America’s Team. The Cowboys sent Miami their two fifth-round compensatory picks to move up one spot (from 12 to 11), and if you are the Dolphins you take that kind of deal because the Cowboys are of little consequence
to you. They are a team from the opposing conference so even if Caleb Downs winds up panning out, it’s not like it’s Miami’s problem directly.
This is the overall line of logic that people had to a degree, then the Cowboys executed their second trade in the first round. Dallas moved down from 20 overall (the pick that they got in the Micah Parsons trade with the Green Bay Packers) three spots to 23. The Cowboys wound up taking Malachi Lawrence with the pick in question, but they picked up two fourth-round picks in the process that became Devin Moore and LT Overton.
It was all thanks to the Philadelphia Eagles, though.
The Cowboys originally asked for a third-round pick
Everywhere you look there is a documentary about the NFL draft. ESPN released one this past Sunday that provided all sorts of insight across the league. Notably it showed us that the Cowboys, before executing their trade with the Dolphins, tried moving up to pick number 9, but the Cleveland Browns said no thanks.
A few days later the Eagles’ own digital team published their own look at the draft. This one was obviously done so with a focus on their team. If you watch it, which you can do so here, you can see in the first five minutes the conversations that they began to have with the Cowboys about moving up in the first round. The whole clip is also below.
Here are the relevant takeaways in sequence:
- Eagles GM Howie Roseman is told that the Cowboys would be interested in swapping (aka Dallas wanted to move back from 20)
- It is first said that the Cowboys would be interested in doing so to acquire the Eagles’ third-round pick (number 98 overall) to do so
- Roseman begins to think out loud and ponders whether Dallas would do the deal and instead receive from them picks 114 and 137 (fourth-round selections), but Dallas would also need to send Philly their 2027 sixth-rounder
- Roseman is told that Dallas is interested and that “it’s the future sixth” and that the Cowboys are talking about it
- Roseman is then seen on the phone, presumably talking to the Cowboys, and negotiates a seventh instead of a sixth
- He then asks if the Cowboys can send the Eagles 218 (which was Dallas’ seventh this year that became Anthony Smith) before then announcing that a deal had been struck
Ultimately the Cowboys swapped first-round picks and did wind up receiving 114 (Moore) and 137 (Overton) to do so. They sent the Eagles next year’s seventh-round selection, but this discussion about 218 from Roseman helps shed light on why it wasn’t fully understood, in the initial moments when the trade happened, whether the seventh that the Cowboys sent was this or next year. Water under the bridge, but it seems even the direct parties involved were unsure.
It makes sense that the Cowboys wanted to pick up another third-round pick, but it also makes sense that Philly wanted to hold on to 98 specifically. While Dallas began Day 2 of the draft by trading for Dee Winters the Eagles also made a trade on the day in question. They sent the pick Dallas asked for, number 98 overall, to the Minnesota Vikings (along with their third next year as well) to acquire Jonathan Greenard.
Good on the Cowboys for asking, though. Interestingly the last time that the teams traded with one another in the first round it did involve a third-round pick. Philly moved up from 12 to 10 during the 2021 NFL Draft to take DeVonta Smith. They sent their third-round pick to the Cowboys to do so and Dallas wound up taking Micah Parsons at that spot.
The more you know.
