Petty Cowboys owner pulls off Eagles trade just to spite Steelers

The first night of the 2026 NFL Draft was filled with crazy storylines but none more bizarre than that with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys. The story, as we've discussed, is that the Steelers were on the phone with USC wide receiver Makai Lemon, telling him he was going to be the pick. This was while the Dallas Cowboys were on the clock.

But in the middle of the conversation between Lemon and Steelers GM Omar Khan, the Philadelphia Eagles traded up with the Cowboys and snatched him out from under the Steelers. This along was crazy and really made the Pittsburgh front office and new head coach Mike McCarthy look bad. But then we started wondering a little deeper about why this happened.

In what universe would a team make a trade to help a division foe? Why on Earth would Cowboys owner Jerry Jones do anything to make the Eagles better? Now the Cowboys will have to face Lemon twice and year and did it all for two fourth-round picks.

Looking at this situation in its entirety, we can only draw one of two conclusions. Jones is so arrogant that he doesn't think it matters that the best team in his division just got a lot better because of him. Or, and the angle we are looking at is that Jones did this to spite McCarthy, his old head coach. McCarthy was the Cowboys' head coach from 2020 to 2024, and this could have been a move in which Jones decided it was worth handing his chief division rival an elite player just to trip up McCarthy with his new team.

This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Petty Cowboys owner pulls off Eagles trade just to spite Steelers