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The jokes about Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys’ puzzling decision to trade for wide receiver Jonathan Mingo prior to the trade deadline on Tuesday weren’t limited to fans and analysts.
On the latest episode of the Scoop City podcast (starts at 5:25 mark), The Athletic’s Dianna Russini said that rival teams were texting her to ask why the Cowboys made the deal, including joking that maybe Mingo is related to the Jones family as a distant cousin.
Jones got the rumor mill spinning early on Tuesday when he said on 105.3 The Fan’s Shan & RJ show that the Cowboys were going to acquire a wide receiver they liked a lot (h/t The Athetic’s Jon Machota).
Jon Machota @jonmachota
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on @1053thefan said they are going to bring in a wide receiver today that they like a lot
It seemed a little strange the Cowboys were making additions at the trade deadline because in the same radio interview Jones said Dak Prescott was “likely” going to be placed on injured reserve due to a hamstring injury suffered in Sunday’s loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
The confusion only got stronger when it was revealed Mingo was the receiver Dallas was acquiring. The Cowboys sent a 2025 fourth-round draft pick to the Carolina Panthers in exchange for Mingo and a 2025 seventh-round pick.
Mingo is only one year removed from being the No. 39 overall pick in the 2023 draft, but he hasn’t been good in the NFL. He was buried so deep on the Panthers’ depth chart that his snaps actually decreased from Week 8 (33) to Week 9 (15) even though Carolina traded Diontae Johnson to the Pittsburgh Steelers between those two games.
Bobby Belt @BobbyBeltTX
Out of 126 players with 75 targets or more over the last two seasons, Jonathan Mingo ranks 126th in the NFL in success rate.
The gap between Mingo at 126 and Rhamondre Stevenson at 125 (3 percentage points) is a larger gap than between any two back-to-back players on the list.
There is a way to explain the Mingo trade as a good buy-low opportunity for the Cowboys on a player who is only 23 and had a lot of potential coming out of college, but the price of a fourth-round draft pick feels extremely high given his level of performance thus far.
The Cowboys have had success drafting players in the fourth round. Tyler Biadasz, Tony Pollard and Jake Ferguson are among their fourth-round selections since 2019.
Rather than try to take another bet on an incoming rookie with a fourth-round selection in 2025, the Cowboys clearly have a lot of faith that a change of scenery will help unlock Mingo’s potential.
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