What trade for Panthers’ Jonathan Mingo means for Cowboys

FRISCO, Texas — With a 3-4 record in 2018, Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones, executive vice president Stephen Jones and vice president of player personnel Will McClay, huddled up in the corner of the training room inside FedEx Field after a 20-17 loss to Washington.

By the following morning, the Cowboys gave up a first-round pick to the Raiders for wide receiver Amari Cooper in a trade that changed the trajectory of that season, as the Cowboys won seven of their next nine games to finish the regular season 10-6 before winning a playoff game.

With a 3-5 record in 2024 and a season quickly fading away — the only NFC teams with a lower chance to make the playoffs are the Giants, Saints and Panthers, per FPI — the Cowboys acquired wide receiver Jonathan Mingo and a 2025 seventh-round pick from the Carolina Panthers on Tuesday for a 2025 fourth-round pick.

Mingo has 55 catches for 539 yards and no touchdowns in two seasons since the Panthers made him a second-round pick in 2023.

This trade may incrementally boost the Cowboys’ wide receiver group this season, but how much of a boost can it be when quarterback Dak Prescott is likely heading to injured reserve with a hamstring injury that would keep him off the field for at least the next four games?

The earliest Prescott could return would be Dec. 9 against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 14. What will the Cowboys’ record be by then, and how much will Mingo contribute anyway?

Speaking on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday, Jerry Jones said the Cowboys were going to add a receiver, but he never mentioned Mingo by name. He said the receiver was somebody the Cowboys thought highly of in the draft process.

Perhaps the best part of the trade for the Cowboys, if there are no immediate dividends this season, is that Mingo is under contract through 2026. Brandin Cooks is sidelined with a knee injury and is set to be a free agent after this season, so the hope is that Mingo can pair up with CeeDee Lamb and Jalen Tolbert and form a solid trio of receivers for Prescott in the future.

He has the size (6-foot-2, 220 pounds) and was timed at 4.46 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the NFL scouting combine. In his final year at Ole Miss, he had 51 catches for 861 yards and five touchdowns. Against Vanderbilt, he had 247 yards.

But in 24 games with the Panthers, he never had more than six catches for 69 yards in a game, and he never scored a touchdown.

Giving up a fourth-round pick seems a bit much. The Cowboys gave up a fourth-round pick to the San Francisco 49ers in 2023 for quarterback Trey Lance, who has yet to see the field, and it cost them a chance to select a running back last spring. Perhaps Lance gets into game action for the first time now that Prescott is hurt.

Quick reminder: Prescott was a fourth-round pick.

Since 2016, the Cowboys have had 11 fourth-round picks. Five — Prescott, DE Dorance Armstrong, TE Dalton Schultz, C Tyler Biadasz and TE Jake Ferguson — turned into productive starters.

The other six barely made an impression.

The Cowboys did not pick up the second coming of Cooper, but Mingo will have to become more than the forgotten six for this trade to be a success.