The Dallas Cowboys acquired wide receiver Jonathan Mingo from the Carolina Panthers near the 2024 trade deadline, sending a fourth-round draft pick for a player who had been largely unproductive in his first season and a half.

As Cowboys training camp begins, Mingo appears to be a long shot to make the 53-man roster, and the trade looks worse with each passing month. Let’s break it down.

Mingo faces daunting roster odds

The Cowboys wide receiver room has four roster locks heading into camp: CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, Ryan Flournoy, and KaVontae Turpin. Lamb and Pickens are the clear top two and one of the best WR duos in the NFL, if not the best. Flournoy earned the undisputed No. 3 role during the 2025 season after proving he could play inside and outside, answer the bell in red zone situations, and perform in high-leverage moments late in the year. 

Turpin is a more controversial one, but he’s making the team. He has All-Pro credentials as a returner and his elite speed gives him a defined specialist role nobody else can replicate. 

That leaves Mingo fighting for what might be a single remaining roster spot (the Cowboys will likely carry just five wide receivers on their roster), and the competition is fierce. 

Mingo is battling younger players with higher upside. Seventh-round draft pick Anthony Smith, second-year receiver Traeshon Holden (a standout during last year’s preseason), undrafted free agent Jordan Hudson, and veteran Marcus Valdez-Scantling all bring something to the table, among others. Valdez-Scantling, in particular, offers a deep-threat element as an outside receiver that differentiates him from the rest of the group. I don’t think MVS makes the team in the end, but as the other “veteran” of the group, he has an edge over Mingo.

Mingo dealt with a minor groin injury that kept limited throughout the offseason program, putting him further behind. His absence opened the door for Valdez-Scantling to take first-team reps while Pickens sat out voluntary OTAs. Without a defined specialty on offense or special teams experience to fall back on, Mingo enters camp in a terrible position. As of today, I would project him as a roster cut.

Why the Cowboys trade never made sense

The problems with this deal trace back to its origins. The Cowboys sent a fourth-round pick for Mingo at a point in the 2024 season when the team was already fading. Dak Prescott had suffered what turned out to be a season-ending hamstring tear. The offense, which had been remarkable in 2023 when Prescott was an MVP candidate and Lamb was in the Offensive Player of the Year conversation, simply could not gel.

The trade, frankly, felt like a desperate move to remain relevant. The Cowboys tried to justify the price tag by framing Mingo as a long-term acquisition — he had two years remaining on his contract beyond 2024, and Dallas paid a premium in draft compensation for that contract control. The problem? The floor was painfully low. Mingo’s production in Carolina was never the selling point. The Cowboys were betting entirely on upside, and from the start, the trade was controversial.

The 2025 Draft left Mingo in a tough spot

Fast forward to the 2025 NFL Draft, and many expected the Cowboys to select a young wide receiver to develop alongside Lamb. People consistently tied Dallas to Tetairoa McMillan, who ironically ended up going to Carolina. I think it’s fair to assume the front office envisioned Mingo as a bridge option while a rookie wideout developed. Instead, the Cowboys went in a different direction in the first round and never added a receiver through the draft.

That forced Dallas into big swing mode. The team traded for George Pickens in May 2025, which immediately pushed Mingo further down the depth chart. What had been a potential No. 2 or No. 3 role became a fight for scraps. Jalen Tolbert initially held the third receiver spot, and for a variety of reasons, Mingo simply could not get on the field.

Where it stands now

The Cowboys paid a fourth-round pick for a player who never carved out a role (six catches in 14 games played with Dallas), missed critical offseason development time, and now faces a roster battle he’s unlikely to win. It would be one of the biggest surprises of training camp if Mingo makes the final 53.

If he doesn’t, this trade goes down as another example of Dallas paying a premium for potential that never materialized — and that fourth-round pick is gone forever.