Joe Mixon Dealt to Texans, Fantasy Impact

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A day after signing Zack Moss and expressing a plan to release longtime starting running back Joe Mixon, the Cincinnati Bengals reversed course Tuesday, instead trading Mixon to the Houston Texans. 

Mixon has been a workhorse over his career, with at least 270 touches in five of his seven seasons, including each of his last three. That total of five such seasons is tied with Ezekiel Elliott for the most among active players. Mixon has four top-10 PPR seasons under his belt, with a fifth season at RB13. 

On the other hand, what Mixon has offered in quantity has somewhat been offset by a lack of efficiency. He only has one season of more than 4.1 yards per carry, and that was back in 2018 (4.9). and he’s averaged 3.96 over the last four years. That, combined with the fact that Mixon will be 28 when Week 1 rolls around, was what made the Bengals view him as expendable after the Moss signing.

The news that Mixon would be released made it sound like he would be scrounging around the leftovers on the market for a 2024 job. Instead, he lands in just about an ideal situation in Houston, running behind star second-year quarterback C.J. Stroud and with not much in the way of touch competition. Devin Singletary took over the Texans starting job partway through last season and put up the best year of his career, before leaving for the Giants in free agency this week.

That leaves only 2022 rookie Dameon Pierce as competition for Mixon, and Pierce already lost the starting job once. We saw OC Bobby Slowik lean heavily on the run in the Texans’ playoff run, and Mixon could be the beneficiary of that in 2024. What once looked like a former fantasy starter on his way to irrelevancy now looks like a potential fantasy factor once again.