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The Cincinnati Bengals will officially hold onto their starting Pro Bowl running back for at least another season.
On Friday, July 14, seventh-year veteran Joe Mixon came to terms with the front office to restructure his contract by accepting a reduction in salary to stay with the team that drafted him, according to reports from NFL Network insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Peliserro.
“Joe just agreed to a restructuring of his deal. His goal is to win a Super Bowl and play his career in Cincinnati, and this is the best way to accomplish these goals,” Mixon’s agent, Peter Schaffer, said on Friday, per Pelissero.
Mixon was due $10.1 million for the 2023 season with a cap hit of $12.791 million and according to Rapoport, his restructured deal included pay cuts of $4.39 million and $4.67 million for the next two years and reduced his base salary this upcoming season to $5.51 million with an extra $2 million that can be earned back via incentive escalators.
Since being selected in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft out of Oklahoma at No. 48 overall, Mixon has led the Bengals in rushing yards every year he’s been in the league including the 2020 season when appeared in the first games and missed the final 10 due to injury. He has topped 1,000 yards rushing three times and surpassed 1,200 total yards from scrimmage four times in his career according to Pro Football Reference.
Mixon is just one year removed from his Pro Bowl season where he recorded career highs in total touches (334), rushing attempts (292), rushing yards (1,205), rushing touchdowns (13), receiving touchdowns (three), and total touchdowns (16). While he came up shy of a second straight 1,000-plus yard rushing season in 2022, he set a career-high in targets (75), receptions (60), and receiving yards (441).
Another Victim of the Rapid Devaluation of Running Backs
Even though he wasn’t released like Davlin Cook, Ezekiel Elliott, or Leonard Fournette were by their previous teams, Mixon likely would’ve joined them on the free-agent market had he not agreed to reduce his 2023 salary.
The average annual salaries for veteran running back have continued to shrink and shrivel in recent years. Outside of the truly elite such as Christian McCaffery and Alvin Kamara who signed their respective extensions several offseasons ago, established highly productive players, at least very efficient in a certain aspect of the game, or just solid all around are being valued less and less in favor or younger and cheaper options.
It is becoming much more common practice for teams across the league to either deploy a backfield-by-committee method or replace a proven talent with a lesser one instead of rewarding them for their efforts.
The shelf life for running backs is the shortest among all position groups in the league according to a study by The Sports Daily at 2.57 years on average. Veterans like Mixon and the aforementioned others are more often being forced to accept less to stick around or risk being exposed to a slow-churning and saturated free-agent market that also includes Pro Bowler and former league rushing champion Kareem Hunt.
Even after taking a pay cut, the 2023 season still might very well be Mixon’s last with the Bengals. There is no telling whether they’ll be willing to keep him even at a reduced cost if he gets hurt and missed a chunk of games, doesn’t produce at Pro Bowl level for a second year in a row, or if next year’s running back draft class is stocked with promising cheap talent.
The Bengals used a fifth-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft to select former Illinois standout Chase Brown at No. 163 overall and he could potentially be their next bell-cow if Mixon doesn’t keep a stranglehold on the job.
Bengals Skill Position Trio Ranks Top 3 in League Rankings
In a recent article by CBS Sports’ Garrett Podell ranking the best running back and two wide receiver pairings in the NFL, the combination of Mixon and standout wideouts J’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins came in at No. 3 in the league.
“(Chase and Higgins) could each be the top receiver on their own, separate teams,” he wrote. “Instead, they partner together to give quarterback Joe Burrow one of the most electric pass-catching duos in the entire league.”
In the first two seasons of his young career, Chase’s 86.2 receiving yards per game are the third-most in NFL history with a minimum of five games played. He only trails future Hall of Famer, seven-time Pro Bowler Julio Jones (87.9), his former LSU teammate, and 2023 NFL Player of the Year Justin Jefferson (96.5).
Since entering the league as a high second-round pick out of Clemson in 2020, Higgins is one of just 15 NFL players with over 200 catches and 3,000 receiving yards. Podell believes he would be a “clear-cut WR1” on many other teams around the league. According to Pro Football Focus, Burrow registered a 121.0 passer rating when targeting Higgins which was the fifth highest among wide receivers according to Pro Football Focus.
Mixons 25 touchdowns from scrimmage the past two years are tied for the third-most in the league with Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams. He only trails Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler who is first with 38 followed by Arizona Cardinals running back James Conner with 26.
“This trio is one the NFL’s best and has the potential to reach number one as soon as next season,” Podell wrote.
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