The Tuesday news that the Bengals signed running back Joe Mixon to a four-year, $48 million contract extension might be a shocker if you haven’t seen Mixon play. An annual average of $12 million per year is the sixth-highest for any NFL back at this time, and given the known fungibility at the position, this may look like a Todd Gurley-level mistake.
The counter to that argument is that, while it got lost in the Bengals’ 2-14 season in 2019, Mixon has firmly established himself as one of the league’s best backs, and one of its most underrated players. Since his rookie season of 2017, Mixon ranks fourth in the NFL in carries with 693, fourth in rushing yards with 2,931, and he’s tied for tenth in rushing touchdowns with 17.
He’s also proven to be an asset in the passing game, with 108 career receptions for 870 yards and four touchdowns. Among running backs since 2017, only Christian McCaffrey, Ezekiel Elliott, Todd Gurley, Alvin Kamara, and Melvin Gordon have more total yards from scrimmage than Mixon’s 3,801. Mixon also ranked fifth in the league last season with 52 broken tackles on rushing attempts. And all of this with iffy quarterbacks, injured receivers, weird offensive schemes, and offensive lines that wouldn’t always pass muster in the SEC. In many ways, Mixon has been an Army of One in ways other backs have not been asked to be,
If you want proof of that broken tackles statistic, look no further than Mixon’s Week 15 performance against the Patriots last season. Mixon ran 25 times for 136 yards against one of the NFL’s best defenses in a 34-13 loss in which quarterback Andy Dalton completed 17 of 31 passes for 151 yards, one touchdown, and four interceptions. You think Joe Burrow might help Mixon out? Yeah, us too.
There was one 29-yard run against the Patriots in particular that proved Mixon’s muscular style, and caught the attention of the NFL’s greatest coach.
After Joe Mixon fried New England's defense on this 29-yard run in Week 15, Bill Belichick said that Mixon "probably is the best back in the league. He runs so hard and is so hard to tackle.” pic.twitter.com/RtGNf6jx1k
— Doug Farrar (@NFL_DougFarrar) September 1, 2020
“That first toss play Mixon hit on us, we had like five guys miss tackles on him,” Belichick said specifically of that 29-yarder. “We knew he was going to be a hard guy to tackle and he was today. We were ready for him; he just did a good job.”
Yes, it’s always risky to give big money to a running back, but Joe Mixon has proven that even with very little around him, he can define an offense as few other backs can. We may see an upgrade in his production as the Bengals transition to an actual starting-level quarterback in Burrow.