The Cowboys’ season may have lost some meaning, but important games lie ahead for their newly-acquired wide receiver.
The Dallas Cowboys have entered a part of the season where Super Bowl aspirations and deep playoff runs have ceased to exist and they are now left tumbling in games of no consequence. Winning suddenly doesn’t have as much meaning now as the team’s ceiling drastically collapsed when they lost Dak Prescott for the rest of the year. The attention now turns to the future. What can they do now that would best serve them in 2025? The team must alter their priorities for the greater good of the team’s future.
One matter of particular interest is figuring out what the team got in Jonathan Mingo. The Cowboys traded a 2025 fourth-round draft pick for Mingo, who was the 39th overall pick in last year’s draft. Despite the initial investment made by the Carolina Panthers, they haven’t been thrilled with his progress, making this trade possible. The Cowboys’ front office was not deterred by Mingo’s lack of production in the NFL and views him as a player with the potential to help their offense.
The Mingo trade will be a topic of discontent for Cowboys’ fans as many feel the front office overpaid to acquire his rights. This will follow him until he can show otherwise. While there remains a lot of football before we get the final verdict on this deal, the Cowboys should test out their latest offensive toy as soon as he is ready to take the field. Mingo didn’t play last week as he was still getting acclimated to the Cowboys playbook, but he should make his Cowboys debut on Monday Night Football against the Houston Texans.
What the team’s new receiver is able to do on the field won’t be very valuable in helping this football team right now, but what they see can help determine what type of need wide receiver will be entering the new season. Mingo possesses a lot of good traits to work with. He is a good route-runner and his physicality makes him a good run-after-catch receiver. He can block and knows how to stay active to work himself open on extended plays. The Cowboys desperately need these traits, and Mingo possesses them.
Throwing him out there with Cooper “Captain Checkdown” Rush will allow them to see how he performs in a role where the quarterback needs to get the ball out quickly and rely on the receiver to pick up additional yards. Can they trust him to run crisp routes and be where the quarterback expects him to be? Will he be a proficient blocker in the run game? Essentially, this will give the Cowboys a sense of what Mingo is capable of and what type of tool he can be for the offense once Prescott returns.
The Cowboys need to figure this out. With some quality draft capital coming next April, it would be nice to know what type of investment is needed at wide receiver. The arrival of Mingo doesn’t exclude the team from taking a receiver in next year’s draft, but it could influence where exactly they should start looking. Hopefully, Mingo will show some promise and afford the team the luxury of being patient and drafting the best players available rather than panicking and drafting for need.
Brandin Cooks enters free agency next offseason and the hourglass is slowly dwindling for the two Jalens. The Cowboys need help at wide receiver in a big way. While Mingo isn’t the answer to their problems, he could be a positive addition and give the team a better sense of what type of investment is truly needed for the offense to improve.