Don’t waste your time trying to figure out what’s going through Jerry Jones’s head when he makes his moves. Because trying to justify the Dallas Cowboys trading for Jonathan Mingo as anything other than desperate makes you more clueless than you think.

According to Discussion on professional football, Jones’ decision for Mingo was not about this season, but rather the next two seasons, with Mingo being a project rather than an immediate solution.

Yes, it’s as stupid as it sounds.

You don’t do everything while planning for the future. That’s not what all-in-one means. And this whole “low cost” solution is just a cover-up for his laziness in making real decisions. Because they could have found other low-cost options that could have an impact both in 2024 and beyond.

For example, Tyler Boyd’s contract is cheaper than Mingo’s and he is much more established than Mingo. On top of that, if Boyd had shown how good he could be in this offense, he could have been an affordable player to re-sign for 2025 and beyond.

Jones struggles because it has become clear to him that he has no idea what he is doing. He hasn’t done anything this year to benefit this team without involving the current players. He inked CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott to long-term deals, but nothing else really happened.

He could have been more active at the trade deadline, especially when we saw how cheap most of the acquisitions were. The most expensive was Marshon Lattimorebut other than that, Jones could have made better moves if he wanted to.

But he’s too focused on the financial aspect because he knows he still has to pay Micah Parsons. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But when you neglect the talent side for dollar signs, you end up in the current situation you’re in now.

THE Cowboys I didn’t even have the best receiver on this team. Last season, Mingo totaled just over 400 receiving yards and this season he is slightly over 100 receiving yards. He has yet to catch his first career NFL touchdown pass.

What about this deal screams of a long-term project that will solve their offensive problems? This is not the case. All he does is cover his ass so he can at least say he did it like he said he would.

Not all acquisitions are equal. And justifying the deal for Mingo is wasting your breath. Jones couldn’t have made any moves before Tuesday and that would have been better than getting Mingo.

Maybe I’m wrong and Mingo turns out to be a cheap #2 option who can have a long career alongside Lamb. But I bet we’ll look back and add this to the list of failed deals Jones made that ultimately didn’t work out the way he hoped.