The reality is that what we’ve seen so far this year from the Cowboys wide-receiver group has been enough top-level talent to give some confidence that this team could get by with only its top four lining up each week. CeeDee Lamb is one of the best in the game, and George Pickens replaced him admirably when Lamb was out with an ankle sprain.
KaVontae Turpin has shown the speed and versatility to be a reliable weapon, and Ryan Flournoy, in Week 5 against the Jets, is the only other Cowboys player besides Pickens and Lamb to record a 100-yard receiving game.
With those four guys and the return to form of tight end Jake Ferguson (51 catches and six touchdowns in seven weeks), the Cowboys are pretty full-up on pass-catchers. They have Jalen Tolbert for depth. And as of Tuesday, they have Jonathan Mingo on the 53-man roster, too. Whether he has a spot and a role, though, is another story.
Cowboys Announce Roster Change
The Cowboys announced that Mingo had been removed from the IR and put into the 53-man roster, with backup offensive lineman Trevor Keegan moving to IR in place of him. That gives the Cowboys six wide receivers, which is on the high side but not unheard of on an NFL roster.
On a roster like that of the Cowboys, though, stacked with receivers who are demonstrably better than Mingo and badly in need of depth elsewhere, keeping Mingo active on game days feels like a luxury the team does not need.
But the Cowboys will keep him, at least for this year. They almost have to, because the team gave up a fourth-round pick to acquire him at last year’s NFL trade deadline, and dumping him know would be a stark admission that the deal was a mistake. Mingo has appeared in eight games thus far for the Cowboys, and has made just five catches on 16 targets.
Jonathan Mingo Will Struggle to See the Field
The Cowboys need to hold onto Mingo as a face-saver, in hopes that some circumstance develops that requires him to get on the field and that he excels when he does so. But as things stand, the Cowboys’ top four receivers all rank in the Top 30 of the Pro Football Focus receiver rankings, out of 127 total receivers in the league.
It is not an impossible outcome, even if it is a longshot. With the way that Dak Prescott is playing, Mingo has his best chance to make a name for himself.
“I feel great,” Mingo said on Monday via The Athletic‘s Jon Machota. “I’m excited. Been waiting. First time I get a chance to play with Dak. I got traded last year, he was hurt. (Then) I missed seven games this year, so I’m finally happy to go out there and play with him. We had a good connection in camp.”
Mingo wants to replicate that on the field. But he has to get on the field to begin with to make it happen.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Cowboys Bump OL to Make Room for 6th WR Jonathan Mingo appeared first on Heavy Sports.