The Dallas Cowboys made a few regime changes early last decade. Team owner Jerry Jones has always functioned as the general manager, but as he approached what most working men consider retirement age (thanks, Social Security laws), he began to cede important levers of control over to his son Stephen. Now 83, the early 2010s saw Stephen Jones evolve into more than just a middle man between owner and head coach; a role Stephen had to play to keep a buffer between Jerry Jones and Bill Parcells during the prior decade.
Following a confusing draft of 2013 that saw them luck into taking center Travis Frederick despite a lopsided trade in the first-round (the team lost an early fourth rounder worth of value), the team elevated Will McClay to a role where he was in charge of all player personnel. Together, the younger Jones and McClay have managed the Cowboys draft in tandem for the last 13 years. Several trends emerged during that time, but one in particular has changed it’s face.
The Cowboys began this duo’s journey refusing to budge from wherever fate landed them in the first-round drafting order. But over the last several years, they’ve become far more willing to play the telephone game that leads to trades, including the one with the Philadelphia Eagles profiled this past Sunday on ESPN’s behind the scenes look at the 2026 draft.
In the above clip, the Cowboys are seen taking stock of who might be interested in moving up to the No. 20 slot, and then working with Eagles GM Howie Roseman. Dallas ended up receiving two fourths plus No. 23, in a move the Cowboys came out ahead in pretty much all value charts.
Dallas actually engineered a trade from both of their first-round slots, up from No. 12 and down from No. 20, winning both, as they moved up from No. 12 to No. 11 in exchange for two compensatory fifth rounders.
Those trades are the fourth and fifth moves the club has made with first-round draft picks since 2019. That’s a stark contrast to the beginning of the Jones-McClay pairing, as they went five-straight years without budging after the Frederick trade. Wherever the fate of the prior season landed them, they honored it.
But that changed in the middle of the 2018 season, when a stagnant offense led the club to orchestrate a trade for WR Amari Cooper with the Oakland Raiders, giving up the Cowboys’ 2019 first-rounder in an even swap. Two years later the club engineered a great trade back after their top CB targets were taken and landed Micah Parsons.
Three years later and the team dropped five spots before taking Oklahoma’s Tyler Guyton and now this year they moved up for Caleb Downs and back for Malachi Lawrence.
This harkens back to the era when the elder Jerry Jones was wheeling and dealing picks in every direction. It’s safe to say the Jones-McClay tandem is now in lockstep in marrying trade value with their prospect evaluations.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: ESPN behind-scenes look at Cowboys-Eagles trade highlights org pivot
Reporting by K.D. Drummond, Cowboys Wire / Cowboys Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
