The NFL commerce deadline noticed high defensive gamers like Marshon Lattimore, Tre’Davious White and Za’Darius Smith dealt to contenders. However there was a far much less consequential transfer earlier within the day that grabbed everybody’s consideration.
As a result of the Dallas Cowboys — the 3-5 Cowboys, the crew that simply misplaced Dak Prescott for a number of weeks with a hamstring harm, you recognize, these Cowboys — gave up a fourth-round draft choose for a fifth-string receiver.
Formally, Dallas acquired wide receiver Jonathan Mingo and a 2025 seventh-round choose from the Carolina Panthers in alternate for a 2025 fourth-rounder. And the crew was promptly roasted on social media and the ESPN airwaves for one of the perplexing soccer trades in current reminiscence.
This newest head-shaking choice is a reminder that Jerry Jones, to place it politely, has alternative ways of doing issues than the opposite 31 NFL entrance workplaces. Ask any Cowboys fan who has shared a “Fireplace the GM, Jerry!” meme or waved a sign. They know that in actuality, this frustration in Dallas gained’t change for so long as Jones runs the crew.
If Jonathan Mingo himself is studying this, I hope he is aware of I’m not mad at him, particularly. How might I be mad at somebody I had by no means heard of earlier than Tuesday?
Defenders of the Cowboys can argue that Mingo is younger and the commerce is a wager on his potential—he was a second-round choose in 2023, in any case. However Mingo isn’t just nameless; he’s been flat-out uninspiring. He has performed 24 video games in his first two seasons with Carolina and has by no means reached the tip zone. Of all NFL receivers because the begin of 2023, Mingo is tied for the fewest yards per goal at 4.9, according to ESPN.
And but the Cowboys gave up extra to amass Mingo than they obtained when buying and selling an in-his-prime Amari Cooper to the Browns in 2022.
Jones’ entrance workplace malfeasance additionally extends to what the Cowboys didn’t do on the deadline. The second-worst dashing crew within the NFL had a possibility to commerce for a younger working again like Khalil Herbert of the Bears, somebody they have been linked to for weeks. Dallas prioritized receiver depth as an alternative, regardless of understanding that within the brief time period, the passing recreation will likely be hindered by Prescott’s absence and the dashing assault will likely be paramount.
Buying a working again would have served to alleviate one other Jones blunder, which was to carry again an previous, unmotivated Ezekiel Elliott after letting Tony Pollard stroll in free company. Elliott didn’t journey with the crew for Sunday’s recreation on the Falcons, reportedly for disciplinary causes, as he’s missed or been late for numerous crew conferences.
Hear, I do know it’s laborious for Cowboys followers to observe their crew toss away a middle-round choose for an unproven vast receiver when the Chiefs spent a fifth-rounder for the likes of DeAndre Hopkins. However chasing an older man like Hopkins is a win-now transfer. The Cowboys, of their present state, are as far-off from win-now mode as potential.
So Jones overpaid for a man who, at greatest, develops right into a useful piece a number of years down the road. Jones received what he actually wished—someday within the information cycle on deadline day. And all press is nice press to Jones, “Fireplace the GM” shirts be damned.
