The injury bug has hit Joe Mixon once again. The Bengals running back is dealing with a low-grade ankle sprain “that will leave him week to week,” reports ESPN’s Adam Schefter (via Twitter).

While Schefter’s tweet seems to indicate that Mixon won’t be in the lineup on Sunday against the Packers, coach Zac Taylor classified his starting running back as “day-to-day” and indicated Mixon could play this weekend.

“I know he wants to play and will do everything he can to put himself in that position,” Taylor said (via ESPN’s Ben Baby).

Mixon suffered the injury late during Thursday’s win over the Jaguars. Up to that point of the season, the 25-year-old had collected 382 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns. Since entering the league as a second-round pick in 2017, Mixon has missed 14 regular season games, including 10 in 2020.

If Mixon does miss any time, the team would likely turn to running backs Samaje Perine and Chris Evans.

Joe Mixon has been out of Bengals practice for the last few days with migraines, as Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. Meanwhile, Mixon is in talks with the Bengals, who are probably hoping that Mixon isn’t looking to cause headaches for the front office. 

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The Bengals have been adamant about wanting to extend Mixon, but talks have been slow to progress. For now, Mixon is set to play out the final year of his rookie deal with a salary of just $1.2MM. The 24-year-old is clearly in line for a pay bump, however, and Bengals player personnel director Duke Tobin recently pointed out the team’s history of extending players during training camp.

As camp draws to a close, Mixon is said to be seeking Top 8 RB money. That would mean an average annual value of at least $8MM – a substantial, but not unreasonable, raise.

The Bengals currently have upwards of $20MM in available cap room. If they’re not aiming for another major addition, it might behoove them to frontload Mixon’s deal and ease the burden in 2021, when the cap is expected to shrink.

Mixon managed a respectable 4.1 yards per carry average last year, despite the Bengals’ sagging offense. This year, he’ll look to reprise his 2018 performance which included a 4.9 ypc mark.

Back in May, Bengals player personnel director Duke Tobin said that the team was interested in extending RB Joe Mixon, and unsurprisingly, his stance has not changed.

“[Mixon] is an important part of our team,” Tobin said, via Tyler Dragon of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “He’s a piece that we’d like to get extended and have around here a long time. Typically, our extensions have gotten done during camp at some point.”

As Dragon observes, Tobin’s statement that the team usually extends players during training camp is noteworthy, as it suggests that the team could finalize something with Mixon in the coming weeks. Indeed, WR Tyler Boyd signed his extension shortly before camp opened last year, and Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap got new deals in August 2018.

For now, Mixon is set to play out the 2020 season on the final year of his rookie deal, which would pay him a salary of just $1.2MM. Given his importance to the team and his performance to date, that would be a major underpay.

However, the 24-year-old is not necessarily trying to break the bank. Per Dragon’s sources, Mixon is hoping his next deal will land him among the eight highest-paid running backs in the league. That would mean an average annual value of at least $8MM, which seems like a reasonable ask.

At present, the Bengals have about $24MM of cap room, but with the salary cap set to drop significantly in 2021, any rollover money would be helpful. Still, the team’s cap situation shouldn’t be an obstacle to a Mixon extension.

Mixon’s YPC average dropped to 4.1 last season after a very strong 4.9 mark in 2018, but he didn’t have much talent around him. With A.J. Green back in the fold and Joe Burrow under center, Mixon — who has posted back-to-back seasons with over 1,100 rushing yards — could be in for a big year.

The 2017 draft class produced many of the league’s starting running backs, and beyond the recently extended Christian McCaffrey, some of the top names have begun discussing new deals. Aaron Jones, Dalvin Cook and Joe Mixon comprise this contingent thus far.

Set to employ Joe Burrow on a rookie salary through at least 2022, the Bengals will have more financial flexibility in the next few years. And they want to extend Mixon. One season remains on the former second-rounder’s rookie contract.

“He’s in a year that he can be extended, and he is a guy that we visited with,” Bengals player personnel director Duke Tobin said during an interview with 700 WLW’s Lance McAllister (via Pro Football Talk). “We’ll go through those discussions and see if there is a fit or a match for a long-term contract with him, obviously a guy we value quite a bit. The great thing about Joe is he goes about it the right way.

“… He’s the type of guy you want to lock up to a long-term deal. We’ll see if we can find the commonality to get that done over time here.”

Mixon is coming off back-to-back 1,100-yard seasons, doing so without the aid of an upper-echelon offensive line in either season. The former Oklahoma back finished last season with 100-yard games in three of Cincinnati’s final four games. The Bengals are unlikely to venture into the salary range of McCaffrey’s running back-record $16MM-per-year deal, and the franchise will surely take into account the expensive contracts for backs that have not worked out — from Todd Gurley to David Johnson to Le’Veon Bell.

The Bengals and Mixon may have to work out a compromise that places him in the upper reaches of the running back market. Unless the Bengals plan to use their franchise tag on A.J. Green again next year, they would have that in play for Mixon. The Titans and Cardinals respectively tagged Derrick Henry and Kenyan Drake, with Arizona deploying the transition tag, and the Bengals will have that as leverage in talks with their 23-year-old starter.