Here's how the Cowboys bungled this year's trade deadline

The in the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys are seemingly no better than before. Leading up to the deadline just days prior, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones changed his tune a little bit from his usual jargon. For some time, he’d been firmly on the side of trusting the talent already on the roster and that Dallas didn’t need to make any major changes. Jones’ attitude changed somewhat outwardly, although after Tuesday we see it didn’t really change that much.

Jerry Jones said the Cowboys would make a move

That’s right, Jerry Jones said after Sunday's loss to the Atlanta Falcons that Dallas would be active at the deadline. Well, Jones didn’t lie and the Cowboys did indeed make a move on Tuesday. Dallas traded a fourth-round pick (2025 draft) to the Carolina Panthers for wide receiver Jonathan Mingo.

This trade seems to be more about the salary cap than anything else. With all the money Jones recently dished out between Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, Mingo's low base salary of less than $2 million in each of the next two seasons played a huge factor in this acquisition.

While Mingo has just 12 catches this season, he’s only been targeted 26 times. He’s still really young at 23 years old in his second professional campaign and Mingo is a big body receiver at 6’2” 220. With Prescott seemingly headed to injured reserve, we may not see this new tandem link up for a while but this is all about next season. Now, that does nothing for Jones going “all-in” this year but it’s not the first time he’s sold fans a bill of goods.

The Cowboys might as well have done nothing

Some say, well if bringing in Mingo was the best move available then Jones should’ve just kept the draft pick. There isn’t a right or wrong answer at the moment as we won’t know until we’ve seen Mingo on the field for Dallas. And even then, he’ll be playing with Cooper Rush for at least the next few weeks while Prescott recovers from a hamstring injury.

Flipping his attitude just before the deadline, Jones made it seem as if the team might go big game hunting on Tuesday. At least that’s how Cowboys fans and others took his words but, in the end, Jones merely made a move. So, he lived up to his word, it just wasn’t a move anyone outside of the organization predicted.

All the big ticket wideouts of name value had already been dealt, like Davante Adams and DeAndre Hopkins. So, bringing in one of those guys wasn’t going to happen for many reasons. Cowboys fans have lofty expectations of this team, but even at 3-5, the Cowboys aren’t completely out of the playoff race. However, with the news of Prescott’s latest injury among other players already on the shelf (Micah Parsons, Demarcus Lawrence, Brandin Cooks), that could be a different story within the next few weeks.

Maybe there wasn’t a blockbuster deal within reach

There’s also the reality that there just may not have been a big deal to be had for Dallas at the deadline. We love to criticize Jones for not making the moves everyone feels he should many times, but it’s also possible that phone calls were made and there just wasn’t much out there. We aren’t privy to everything that happens behind the scenes.

A name that floated around leading up to the deadline was Darius Slayton of the New York Giants. Now interdivisional trades are rare but we don’t know if Jones may have reached out to make an inquiry. It’s extremely likely that the Giants would turn Jones down but we just don’t know. That’s what eats at fans is that they aren’t behind the scenes and don’t know how much Jones is or is not trying.

 Based on what we’ve seen from Jerry in recent years, it’s safe to say he probably didn’t try too hard to bring in more than Jonathan Mingo. That’s no shade on Mingo, he just hasn’t had the opportunities yet but he may get them in Dallas. Fans always want the big splash or the best player they feel their team can get. However, it doesn’t always work out and rarely seems to, in Big D.