Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones arrived at the team pre-draft media session at The Star on Wednesday making one thing clear: the phone lines are open, and Dallas is ready to deal.
Jones told reporters at the Cowboys official pre-draft briefing that the team had already fielded calls from other franchises ahead of the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, which was set to kick off Thursday evening in Pittsburgh. While he did not name the teams that reached out, he confirmed that every variety of transaction — ranging from swapping draft picks to acquiring players on other rosters — was firmly on the table.
The Cowboys enter the draft holding two first-round selections, picks No. 12 and No. 20 overall, giving the franchise rare double-barreled leverage in a year when a weak quarterback class has made several teams near the top of the board unusually willing to move down. That dynamic, Jones indicated at the pre-draft briefing, only amplifies the options available to Dallas.
Jones made clear, however, that his preferred posture is to wait for the call to come to him rather than placing it himself. He told reporters that in his experience, trade arrangements tend to produce better results when the other team initiates the conversation. Stephen Jones, the Cowboys executive vice president and co-owner, echoed that the team had not reached anything concrete in terms of moving up, but added that trading back to accumulate additional Day 2 capital was a legitimate path worth weighing — particularly given that Dallas currently holds no second-round pick.
The Cowboys have made 73 draft-day trades since 1989, a figure that underscores just how willing the organization has been to use the draft as a live market. Jones acknowledged the team also has financial flexibility it has not always had in recent years, a factor that could come into play if a player worth reaching for emerges early in the proceedings.
The team also held open the possibility of acquiring a veteran player through trade at some point over the draft weekend, with ongoing conversations already underway. Wide receiver George Pickens, acquired from Pittsburgh ahead of the 2026 season, remains on the franchise tag and figures into those roster calculations.
For South Carolina football fans, the stakes of any Cowboys trade maneuver carry local weight. Clemson University sent a record-threatening class of prospects into this year draft, with several players clustered squarely around the Dallas pick range. Defensive end T.J. Parker, defensive tackle Peter Woods, offensive tackle Blake Miller, and cornerback Avieon Terrell have all received first-round or early second-round grades from multiple evaluators, with Woods and Parker projected by some analysts to land in the late first round right around the Cowboys 12 and 20 slots. Any Dallas trade — up, down, or sideways — could directly reshape which Clemson Tiger lands where, and for how much draft capital.
The first round of the 2026 NFL Draft began Thursday evening in Pittsburgh, with rounds two and three scheduled for Friday and the final four rounds set for Saturday morning.
