The Cowboys rained on Pittsburgh’s draft parade on Thursday night, by trading out of the No. 20 spot and allowing the Eagles to draft receiver Makai Lemon at a time when the Steelers had Lemon on the phone.
A report emerged that the Steelers weren’t happy with the Cowboys for giving the pick to the team that plucked Lemon. On Saturday, the powers-that-be in Dallas addressed that claim.
Via Jon Machota of The Athletic, Cowboys executive Stephen Jones said, “That’s not right.” Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones added, “Not at all.”
“I don’t want to get on their bad side,” Jerry Jones said. “I’m sorry if they’re mad. But, boy, I’ll tell you what, we’ve had it happen to us a bunch of times. It [was] traded right out from under us.”
Jerry Jones explained that the Cowboys traded up one spot in round one with the Dolphins to avoid being jumped by someone else for safety Caleb Downs. That’s how the draft works. All’s fair. There’s no reason for the Steelers to be upset. If they really wanted Lemon, they should have traded up to No. 19 or higher.
The draft is a free for all. A Battle Royale. Every team for itself. If you get jumped by a team that trades up, the last team to be pissed at is the team that traded down.
That’s how the draft goes. Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn’t understand how the draft works. And if Steelers owner Art Rooney II is upset with Jerry Jones, Rooney shouldn’t be.
Our guess, with all due respect to the report that the Steelers are upset, is that the Steelers are embarrassed by the fact that their effort to draft Lemon became a public spectacle. But they aren’t — and shouldn’t be — upset with the Cowboys for exercising their absolute right to trade down.
Eagles Clips
The Eagles are hoping history will repeat itself.
Eight years after taking a seventh-round flier on tackle Jordan Mailata, who has started eighty-five regular-season games and was a second-team All-Pro in 2024, the Eagles have rolled the dice on another player who has never played organized football.
Philadelphia selected defensive tackle Uar Bernard with the 251st pick in the 2026 draft. Invited by Osi Umenyiora to participate in the 2024 NFL Nigeria camp, Bernard eventually landed in the NFL’s International Player Pathway program class of 2026.
It ended up creating an opportunity with the Eagles.
Along the way, the six-four, 306-pound Bernard ran the 40-yard dash in 4.63 seconds and demonstrated a 39-inch vertical jump at the HBCU Showcase and International Player Pathway Pro Day in March.
“It’s a dream come true for me because I’ve worked hard for this,” Bernard said after being selected. “I’ve not played football, but I’ve gone through some drills that made me believe that I’m going to get better every day. I thank God for everything. I thank God for life. I thank God for the opportunities given to me to be drafted by the Eagles.”
“We wanted to take the chance on the kid,” G.M. Howie Roseman said. “Obviously, we’ve had great success with that program. We spent a lot of time with him. Coach [Clint] Hurtt went down there and spent the day with him, worked him out. You know, just for us, it was a passion project. Obviously, he’s got a lot of tools in his body. Understand it’s going to take time. It’s going to take a lot of time here.”
Mailata was discovered through that same approach, parlaying a spot in the International Player Pathway program into a starting job and a Super Bowl win. As the NFL becomes a global game, teams are scouring the globe for potential football players — even if they have never played football before.
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’t trade with a division rival.
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’s a lesson Jones said he doesn’t agree with.
“I don’t really pay much attention to who I’m talking to,” Jones said when asked about trading within the NFC East. “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 has had an inconsistent approach to heeding Davis’s lesson. Last year, when the Eagles wanted to trade for Micah Parsons, Jones wouldn’t even discuss it with them, 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.
Lemon wouldn’t be an Eagle if not for Jones’ 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’s advice.
The Eagles have three quarterbacks on their roster, with Andy Dalton and Tanner McKee backing up Jalen Hurts. That didn’t stop them from taking another one.
Philadelphia used a fifth-round pick, No. 178 overall, on North Dakota State’s Cole Payton.
Payton is the sixth quarterback selected in the 2026 draft.
It is unclear how the Eagles plan to use the dual-threat player, who could be a Tysom Hill-type. NFL teams saw him as an intriguing potential tight end convert before the 2025 season, per Dane Brugler of TheAthletic.com.
As a freshman, Payton lost the starting job to Cam Miller. He served as a backup for four seasons, scoring 23 touchdowns as a reserve in mop-up duty or special packages, before becoming the starting quarterback in 2025.
In 13 starts — the only 13 starts of his career — he completed 72 percent of his passes for 2,719 yards with 16 touchdowns and four interceptions before breaking the thumb on his left (throwing) hand. He also ran for 777 yards and 13 touchdowns on 136 carries.
Payton set school records for total offense per game (268.9) and yards per play (9.71).
On Friday night, Eagles first-round receiver Makai Lemon was ringing the bell at the Celtics-76ers playoff game. The night before, he was on the horn with the Steelers, who were planning to take him with the 21st pick in the draft.
Unbeknownst to Pittsburgh, the Eagles had jumped up to pick No. 20. And Philly wasn’t able to get through to Lemon, since he was talking to the Steelers.
Former Eagles exec Jake Rosenberg noted on Friday that the Steelers may have run afoul of the rules by talking directly to Lemon at a time when the Eagles were attempting to reach him.
On Friday, we asked the league about the rule regarding calling prospects when another team is on the clock. Here’s the response we received earlier today: “The league reviews all aspects of the Draft the week after its conclusion.”
Obviously, the Steelers’ call to Lemon will fall within the scope of that review.
It seemed to be an innocent mistake, and the Eagles likely would have picked Lemon in that spot even if they couldn’t have made the perfunctory phone call before doing so. Besides, the embarrassment of having it known that tackle Max Iheanachor was Plan B is arguably punishment enough.
The Vikings added four players on the second night of the draft. That’s still not the headline.
Minnesota traded defensive end Jonathan Greenard to the Eagles, in a move that entailed both teams proceeding quietly and discreetly while Greenard went to Philadelphia to take a physical.
After the Vikings made their Day 2 picks, executive V.P. of football operations Rob Brzezinski addressed the decision to trade Greenard.
“This is not something we’re jumping around excitedly about, but we do feel like we [did] the best thing for the organization moving forward,” Brzezinski said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN — who described the mood as “somber.”
So why not just give Greenard the four-year, $100 million deal he received from the Eagles? With Will Anderson recently moving the market at the position to $50 million per year, paying Greenard half that amount doesn’t seem to be a ridiculous amount.
“We have just spent so much money the last several years that it’s not sustainable for us to move forward,” Brzezinski said. “Our salary cap situation has been very, very challenging.”
That’s the price for going all-in a year ago, despite not having a viable plan at quarterback. They surely didn’t sign Greenard in 2024 with the goal of keeping him for two years. And so they opted to seize on the opportunity to roll the dice on a pair of younger, cheaper players in the form of a third-round pick in 2026 and a third-round pick in 2027.
The onus now falls on the front office (which currently doesn’t have a G.M.) to get the right players, and on the coaching staff to develop them into contributors. And then to manage the cap in a way that allows them to reward and retain their best players.
When will new Eagles defensive end Jonathan Greenard make his first appearance in Philadelphia? He already has.
Greenard was spotted at the Celtics-76ers NBA playoff game with Eagles’ jack-of-all-trades Big Dom a/k/a Dom DiSandro.
Here’s video of Greenard at the game. Big Dom can be seen behind him.
Per the Eagles, Greenard arrived in Philly earlier in the day for a physical. After it was complete and the deal was agreed to and announced, Greenard went to the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Greenard fills the void that was created when Jaelan Phillips signed a four-year, $120 million deal with the Panthers. The Eagles had given up a third-round pick to the Dolphins in order to secure Phillips for the 2025 stretch run.
After making their second-round pick, the Vikings made a move that likely will not go over well with the fan base.
Defensive end Jonathan Greenard has been traded to the Eagles, for a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 third-round pick. The Eagles also received pick No. 244 in the 2026 draft.
Greenard gets a four-year, $100 million extent, per multiple reports as leaked by Greenard’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus.
The possibility of a trade had lingered for weeks. Greenard, who was signed in free agency from the Texans when former Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter signed with Houston, wanted a raise over his $19 million compensation package for 2026.
The new deal averages $25 million per year, which remains well below the top of the market for edge rushers.
After racking up 12.0 sacks in 2024, his first with the Vikings, Greenard had only three sacks in 2025. Injuries limited him to 12 games with 10 starts.
The move now gives the Vikings three picks in tonight’s third round, subject to additional moves.
On Thursday night, the Steelers had USC receiver Makai Lemon on the phone before the Steelers were on the clock. It could put them on the radar screen of 345 Park Avenue.
Jake Rosenberg, long-time Eagles executive who left the organization two years ago, has made this observation on Twitter: “Clubs that are not ‘on the clock’ may have discussions with the representative of one or more draft-eligible players not yet selected (or discussion with the players themselves) regarding the player’s interest in playing in the League, playing with a particular club or type of club, the player’s health, or other such non-financial matters, so long as these discussions do not interfere with discussions between a player and the club that is ‘on the clock.’”
A source currently working for a team not involved in the situation tells PFT that this is indeed the rule.
NFL Network televised the video of Lemon talking to the Steelers while the Eagles were trying to reach him. Beyond making the Steelers look foolish, the video may get the Steelers in hot water.
It’s probably not something the league will care about. With the first round trimmed to eight minutes, there will be periodic complications. Ultimately, it didn’t keep the Eagles from getting Lemon. And the embarrassment may be punishment enough for the team that is hosting the draft.
Before last night, it was obvious that receiver A.J. Brown wouldn’t return to the Eagles for a fifth season with the team. Once the Eagles traded up to No. 20 to bogart Makai Lemon from the Steelers, it became obvious that Brown will not be back.
Still, Eagles G.M. Howie Roseman is committed to the bit. Here’s what he said after round one, via Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
“A.J. is a member of the Eagles. We don’t have any trades that have been made, or that are done. And I think for us, we’re taking this one day at a time. We’re going to look to improve the team tomorrow, and we’ll continue to address anything that we have to with our roster, not only through this draft weekend, but we’ll continue to look for ways to improve the team throughout the offseason, and as we get into training camp.”
We continue to believe that the Eagles already have an unofficial deal in place to trade Brown to the Patriots after June 1, when the dead-money charge will be divided over two league years. It’s permissible to have a handshake deal, and there’s no requirement that it be announced.
There’s also no requirement that both teams proceed.
It requires a basic level of trust and a leap of faith that both sides will honor the handshake deal. Unless someone reneges (or Brown fails the physical), Brown will be a Patriot on June 2.
