FRISCO, Texas – Time for a little perspective on the Cowboys trade for Carolina wide receiver Jonathan Mingo, the Cowboys sending a 2025 fourth-round pick for the second-year wideout and a Carolina seventh-round pick.
Start here: This was not a trade meant to save the season by any means. This was a trade for the future, that just might add a little experience to a young receiver corps, especially with CeeDee Lamb managing the AC joint sprain from Sunday's Atlanta game and veteran Brandin Cooks still not ready to return and in the final year of his contract.
On top of that looking forward, KaVontae Turpin will become a restricted free agent next year, and while the Cowboys likely will give him a qualifying offer, but with his return ability, some team just might offer the NFL's second leading punt returner (16.2 average) and NFL leading kickoff returner (34.2 average) some unmatchable bucks.
And the Cowboys didn't just pluck this Mingo out of a hat. They obviously had a good draft grade on him coming out of Ole Miss in 2023. First of all, 6-2, 220-pound receivers who run a 4.46 and average 16.88 yards per catch for an SEC school don't grow on trees.
You can disparage his numbers this year at Carolina if you want, 12 catches for 121 yards, with five starts in nine games, but factor in these are the Panthers, 2-7, having won that second game just this past Sunday, beating the now 2-7 Saints (23-22) who haven't won a game since whipping the Cowboys in Week 2 to start the season 2-0. And last year the Panthers finished 2-15, with the 32nd ranked offense.
And just remember who has been quarterbacking for the Panthers these past two seasons, a young, inexperienced Bryce Young, with a new coaching staff this season. Because last year, Mingo's rookie season, he did catch 43 passes for 418 yards starting 14 of 15 games played.
Next, then why him? Well, Mingo is just 23 years old and will be the youngest guy in the receiver room. The Cowboys will have his rights for the remaining nine games this year and through 2026.
OK, and certainly everyone is screaming why not them others?
Start with DeAndre Hopkins, Kansas City acquired for a conditional fifth that can become a fourth. He's 32 already. He is in the final year of his contract, costing the Chiefs $4.8 million for the rest of this rental season. Uh, the Chiefs are 8-0, not the 3-5 of the Cowboys who are in this soft rebuild, needing to develop some of these young receivers and hoping Cooks returns, soon this season.
Then there is Devante Adams. He turns 32 in December, and the Cowboys don't have Aaron Rodgers. He is costing the Jets $3.2 million for the rest of this season and is on the books for the next two seasons at $35.6 million cap hits. You figure that out with CeeDee on the books the next two seasons at $35.4 million and $35.6 million, so a little rich for the Cowboys cap blood.
Then there is Amari Cooper, and don't think the Cowboys wanted a redo on that. Cooper is 30, and Buffalo paid a third-round to the Browns, yet only costs $806,000 since the Browns restructure his base salary and paid him the majority of his guaranteed $20 million on the final year of the contract he signed with the Cowboys. A rental player.
One more. Everyone recognizes Mike Williams name, the Jets trading the 30-year receiver to Pittsburgh for a fifth and in the final year of his contract, costing them $2.09 million in dead money. Williams nearly has the same 2024 numbers as Mingo, 12 catches for 166 yards. Another rental player.
Just sayin', when it comes to this trade-deadline stuff, don't be short-sighted. Mingo will only cost the Cowboys $576,000 for the remainder of the season, then $1.5 million and $1.9 million the remaining two seasons. So, a steal if he can come close to replicating his final season at Ole Miss when he caught 51 passes for 861 yards and five touchdowns.
Oh, and another thing. The Cowboys will likely receive at least three compensatory picks for not having signed any unrestricted free agents before the NFL Draft and losing five starters, Tony Pollard, Tyler Biadasz, Dorance Armstrong, Tyron Smith and Johnathan Hankins. One could be a fourth.
Just taking a shot at pointing out the needed facts.
- Coooop Is Back: That's right, veteran backup Cooper Rush takes over with Dak Prescott out, and we know he went 4-1 subbing in for Dak that 2022 season, preserving the Cowboys season until Dak returned for the Cowboys to finish 12-5 and win the NFC East. And this is not to diminish what Coop accomplished as a backup quarterback during that 4-1 stretch. But in the four games he led the Cowboys to victory, the Cowboys only gave up 17, 16, 10 and 10 points before losing to the Eagles, 26-17. That means the Cowboys defense during that four-game stretch was giving up an average of 13.25 points a game while Cooper led the Cowboys to an average of 22.5 points a game. That won't cut it with this Cowboys defense, having given up an average of 35.2 points in the five losses and 34.6 during the current three-game losing streak.
- Dead Weight: About time the Cowboys have decided to part ways with cornerback Andrew Booth and veteran defensive tackle Jordan Phillips. Just sometimes you have to take out the eraser on move on. Especially with Phillips, acquired via trade on Aug. 15, sending trading a 2026 sixth-round pick to the Giants with a seventh coming back in return. Phillips played in just the first two games, and not well, finishing with just an assisted tackle on 34 snaps before going on IR (wrist) for the next six games. As for Booth, who the Cowboys acquired in an Aug. 9 trade with Minnesota for Nahshon Wright (wasn't going to make the team), the backup has spent the entire season on the Vikings practice squad, while Booth played in only three games for the Cowboys, first starting in place of the injured Caelen Carson who had been starting for the injured DaRon Bland (yeah, that bad) in the Giants game, getting benched after the first half, continuing his poor play we saw in the preseason games. Ended up playing just 38 snaps – 38 more so far then Wright. The Cowboys waited until the trade deadline to release both players, likely hanging on to see if they could get something for them, which they didn't and then Buffalo was able to sign Phillips for a third time.
- Two Straight: Bad enough the Cowboys had to play last week's NFC Offensive Player of the Week against Atlanta quarterback Kirk Cousins, and now this. They must play Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, this week's NFC Offensive Player of the Week, who totaled 199 scrimmage yards against Jacksonville (159 rushing, 40 receiving) and scored two touchdowns (one rushing, one receiving). Man, when it rains it pours.
- Bird Seed: While Dak Prescott is not playing this week, and maybe for several weeks, the Cowboys might be hesitant to place him on injured reserve, since guys on injured reserve for the mandatory four games, can't be present at practice or even be present for walk-throughs or team meetings and the Cowboys want to keep their veteran QB engaged to help out Cooper Rush and Trey Lance at practice and on Game Day, as he was here during Wednesday's practice . . . Speaking of Lance, with Rush starting he's now running the scout team, at practice and good timing, though would have been doing this anyway, basically playing Jalen Hurts on the scout team for this week's practice . . . Thought it interesting that when Tyler Guyton left the Atlanta game for three plays it was Asim Richards who came in at left tackle . . . How is this for one of those obscure stats, the Cowboys having won four consecutive home games in the months of November, and have to go back to Thanksgiving 2021 for the last loss, 36-33 in overtime to the Raiders . . . And this one about the Eagles, the only team in the NFL currently ranked in the top six in total offense and defense, sixth on offense and third on defense.
For this week's last word, we turn to head coach Mike McCarthy who sort of gave us a dissertation on the value of young quarterbacks staying in college as long as they can to gain reps and throws before heading into the NFL, where suddenly these rookies training in the offseason and during training camp is limited.
Always thought too many players come out too soon, and then if they are drafted high in the first round, they are thrown to the wolves and expected to be the franchise's savior. Many a QB have been ruined by playing too soon, and this is a timely subject since suddenly with Dak out and Rush starting Cowboys third quarterback Trey Lance is elevated to backup.
And as we know Lance had limited snaps at quarterback in college, coming out after his shortened COVID second season starting at North Dakota State yet drafted in the first round by San Francisco and now in his fourth NFL season with only 262 regular season game snaps, with 178 of those during his rookie 2021 season with the Niners.
"I think it's very hard," McCarthy begins. "I'll tell you the longer I do this I do think there is a lot of merit to the number of attempts that they play that they have in college – 1,300 passing attempts I think there is a tremendous amount of value to that, and if you look at the guys who don't have that opportunity, the opportunity to sit, because I've seen the guys who have sit that have really benefited from that, Aaron Rodgers is a great example of that. Then there are guys who are thrown in there right away, that's hard, that's really, really hard.
"So I think their path is critical, the introduction to them playing, and that's why you see these young quarterbacks come in the league in Year 1, and boy I'm telling you there college experience is critical because some of these guys haven't played a tremendous amount of football, and I think these younger guys that are staying in college football and playing an extra year is very smart. It's the perfect training ground to get ready because you can't – what Trey lance is going through. We can't get those reps with Trey, those live reps that if you stay in college an extra year, things like that.
"If you look at the landscape of how these guys are coming in, boy I'll tell you if I had a young quarterback I would recommend staying and playing as long as you can because those are critical, critical repos and opportunities to get, especially in today's (NFL) training environment."
Maybe our last word, but a word to the wise.
