'I did better than people thought I was going to do': A healthy Jonathan Mingo is ready for the NFL

Ole Miss held its 2023 Pro Day on Wednesday and allowed former Rebels like Jonathan Mingo one final chance to show off skills and audition in front of NFL coaches and scouts.

For Mingo it was the final piece of the puzzle when it comes to this part of the NFL Draft preparation. He participated in the NFL Scouting Combine earlier this month as well as the Reese’s Senior Bowl in February.

Wednesday provided Mingo his last opportunity to perform inside Ole Miss’ indoor practice facility and did so at full strength.

“I think today went well. Just showing every team I’m versatile,” Mingo said. “I can play any position and show them I can run the whole route tree.”

Since Ole Miss ended the 2022 season at the end of December in the Texas Bowl Mingo began the work towards preparing for this month and his future in the NFL.

After a strong showing at the Combine in Indianapolis, Mingo did not participate in many of the speed drills outside of the 20-yard shuttle (4.27 seconds) and the three-cone drill (7.02). He was happy with his performances in the 40-yard dash and other drills at the Scouting Combine .

“Yeah, I did better than people thought I was going to do,” Mingo said. “I knew once my body got healthy I knew I could do fast times, show them I could run the whole route tree. The combine was easy. So today I only had to do cone drills, show them I could do cone drills, and run routes. I’ve been running routes my whole life so I feel like it was a breeze.”

Mingo had the 16th best 40 time among receivers at the Scouting Combine with a time of 4.46 seconds.

Mingo showed off his skill set at Pro Day and caught passes from a familiar face.

Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart was in attendance and threw passes to Mingo and Malik Heath during the skill drills.

This week was the first time Mingo and Dart connected on the football field since the Texas Bowl back in December. But being able to have his quarterback making the throws helped provide a comfort level to Mingo.

“It was good being back throwing with him,” Mingo said. “As soon as (Dart came back from Spring Break) I came back down here. We’ve been training late at night. Monday we were up here at 12 o’clock at night. So he came out here, took his time out to throw to me and Malik. He knew he had to be back up at six o’clock in the morning (on Tuesday) for practice. Big props to him for coming out and throwing me. That was a blessing.”

Jaxson Dart throwing to Mingo and Heath #OleMiss pic.twitter.com/qUhXQbX5ye

— Jake Thompson (@JakeThompsonOn3) March 29, 2023

Now that all the on-the-field parts of the NFL Draft process are complete the attention now turns to meeting with teams.

Mingo already took visits to the Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers and has visits scheduled with the New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens, Dallas Cowboys, Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons.

There are also some zoom meetings schedule with teams, making April a busy month for Mingo.

Mingo does not have any pre-conceived ideas or expectations of which round he may be selected come a month from now and is just going to take what comes in a month from now.

“It’s not up to me,” Mingo said. “I feel like which team gets me they’re going to get a good player. So, whoever skips over me that’s their miss. Whoever gets me going to get a dog. I know I got more left on the table and more I can bring out. There’s a lot of football people never seen out of me. Whatever team gets me they’re going to get a blessing.”

You can watch Mingo’s full post Pro Day interview below. Video provided by Ole Miss Sports Productions.