For the past several months, there have been rumblings that Joe Mixon‘s time with the Bengals could soon be up. However, in his post-draft presser yesterday, head coach Zac Taylor indicated that the seventh-year running back would remain in Cincinnati in 2023.
“[Mixon’s] future is here with the team,” Taylor told reporters, including Ben Baby of ESPN.com. “I like Joe Mixon.”
Those comments are certainly more definitive than those made by VP of player personnel Duke Tobin and executive VP Katie Blackburn earlier this offseason. When asked whether the club would retain Mixon, Tobin said, “I don’t know,” and Blackburn was similarly noncommittal. Several weeks ago, a report from Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic suggested that Mixon will ultimately be asked to take a pay cut.
A pay cut may be the best outcome for both sides, as the Bengals would retain a 2021 Pro Bowler while reducing his $12.8MM cap number, and Mixon would avoid becoming a late addition to a free agent market that has proven quite unfriendly to running backs. Plus, it’s not as though he would be hitting the market with a great deal of momentum; he posted a subpar 3.9 YPC average in 2022 and is presently facing a misdemeanor charge of aggravated menacing.
If player and team do not discuss or come to terms on a salary reduction, the Bengals could release Mixon with a post-June 1 designation and shave over $10MM off their 2023 ledger. However, that would put a great deal of pressure on Trayveon Williams (47 career carries), Chris Evans (17 career carries), and fifth-round rookie Chase Brown.
If Cincy had been able to re-sign Samaje Perine, perhaps the club would have been more inclined to move on from Mixon and deploy a Perine/Brown tandem at the top of the RB depth chart. Or, if a blue-chip prospect like Bijan Robinson had fallen to them in this year’s draft, the Bengals might have been comfortable with such a player taking over RB1 duties right away. As it stands, however, it would seem that a team with Super Bowl aspirations would not immediately hand the running back reins to Brown, no matter how high his upside might be. So Taylor’s comments with respect to Mixon, who has joined the team for voluntary workouts, make sense.
For his part, Brown — a Doak Walker Award finalist who rushed for 1,643 yards and posted 13 total TDs in his final season with Illinois — is excited to work with Mixon.
“They have a great running back there right now, Joe Mixon, who I grew up watching and watched a lot through college,” Brown said. “So I’m excited to come in, learn from him, learn from the coaching staff and produce on Sundays.”
I would take him if Lefty was a GM of a Pro Football Team, he is a good running back
Despite his off the field issue from college days, his slate would be clean with me
Anyway, he should stay on the Bengals
I thought for sure they were going to draft Abadikhanda , but he ended up with Jets late
Eh, he’s getting older by RB standards and is likely starting to decline, not just having had a down year last season. He’s about the same age as Bell and Zeke when their slides began.
Mixon just might have a year or two left before the wheels really come off and he’s struggling to stay in the league.
Mixon has only 6 fumbles on 1314 career carries so I’d hang on to him until those wheels come off.
12 million a year is a lot to pay for someone who’s best attribute is that he doesn’t fumble much
Particularly if the league does something regarding his recent off-the-field “activities”.
Mixon is still productive and even a casual NFL fan knows there is a strong correlation between turnover ratio and success.
You could get the same production from a guy like Kareem Hunt for 2-3 million a year