9. Joe Mixon, Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals’ 2019 offense was a hot mess, one of many reasons the team went 2-14 and positioned itself to select Joe Burrow with the first overall pick. But Mixon, the team’s second-round pick in 2017 out of Oklahoma, had no problem transcending everything around him. Mixon posted his second straight thousand-yard season in 2019, broke 52 tackles on 278 rushing attempts, and had 14 runs of 15 yards or more. Given the state of Cincinnati’s offensive line last season, Mixon had to create explosive plays on his own perhaps more than any other back in the league.
The good news for Joe Mixon is that he can create plays like this all by himself.
The bad news? In 2019, he pretty much had to. pic.twitter.com/Ouc55ZALKa
— Doug Farrar (@NFL_DougFarrar) July 26, 2020
One thing that helped was when the Bengals scrapped the zone-blocking schemes that didn’t work for their talent, and went with more of a series of gap schemes. In his last four games, Mixon ran 95 times for 494 yards, a 5.2 yards per carry average, and three touchdowns. Perhaps 2020 will be a breakout season for perhaps the most underrated runner on this list.