FRISCO, Texas – With a 3-4 record in 2018, Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones, executive vice president Stephen Jones and vice president of player personnel Will McClay huddled in a corner of the training room at FedEx Field 20:17 loss to Washington.

The next morning, the Cowboys traded a first-round pick to the Raiders for wide receiver Amari Cooper, a trade that changed the course of that season, as the Cowboys won seven of their next nine games and finished the regular season at 10-00. 6 before winning a playoff game.

With a 3-5 record in 2024 and a rapidly fading season – according to FPI, the Giants, Saints and Panthers are the only NFC teams with lower playoff chances – the Cowboys acquired wide receiver Jonathan Mingo and a 2025 seventh-rounder. Pick by the Carolina Panthers on Tuesday for a 2025 fourth-round pick.

Mingo has 55 catches for 539 yards and no touchdowns in two seasons since the Panthers made him a second-round pick in 2023.

This trade could incrementally strengthen the Cowboys' wide receiver group this season, but how big can that be when quarterback Dak Prescott is likely headed to injured reserve with a hamstring injury that would keep him off the field for at least the next four games?

The earliest Prescott could return is Dec. 9 against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 14. What will the Cowboys' balance sheet be by then and how much will Mingo actually contribute?

Jerry Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan that the Cowboys would add a receiver, but never mentioned Mingo by name. He said the receiver was someone the Cowboys valued highly in the draft process.

Perhaps the best part of the trade for the Cowboys, if there are no immediate dividends this season, is that Mingo is under contract through 2026. Brandin Cooks is out with a knee injury and is expected to be a free agent after this season. The hope is that Mingo can team up with CeeDee Lamb and Jalen Tolbert and form a solid receiver trio for Prescott in the future.

He has the size (6-foot-2, 220 pounds) and was timed 4.46 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine. In his senior year at Ole Miss, he had 51 catches for 861 yards and five touchdowns. Against Vanderbilt he had 247 yards.

But in 24 games with the Panthers, he never had more than six catches for 69 yards in a game and never scored a touchdown.

Giving up a fourth-round pick seems like a bit much. The Cowboys gave up a fourth-round pick to the San Francisco 49ers in 2023 for quarterback Trey Lance, who has yet to see the field, and it cost them a chance to select a running back last spring. Maybe Lance will get into the game for the first time now that Prescott is injured.

Quick reminder: Prescott was a fourth-round pick.

Since 2016, the Cowboys have had 11 fourth-round picks. Five – Prescott, DE Dorance Armstrong, TE Dalton Schultz, C Tyler Biadasz and TE Jake Ferguson – became productive starters.

The other six made little impression.

The Cowboys missed out on Cooper's second comeback, but Mingo will need to be more than the Forgotten Six for this trade to be a success.