Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon never feared for his status with the team this offseason.
Mixon, whose costly cap number and off-field incident generated buzz about his future with the Bengals in 2023, says he’s tuned out the noise and only paid attention to those within the team this offseason.
Asked about the situation, Mixon also pointed to his relationship with Bengals president Mike Brown.
“Not at all,” Mixon said during an interview with Elise Jesse of
Cincinnati Bengals Talk at Mixon’s ProCamp. “You hear a lot of noise, but at the same time, when you don’t pay attention and you don’t see it, none of that affects you. It’s a great thing to see what matters most is Mike Brown. . . . He embraced me since day one and I love Mike and I know Mike loves me too, so it’s a great thing to have. I feel like our front office, everybody is great to me, everybody has backed me 100 percent, and it’s a great feeling.”
The Bengals not signing an outside free agent or drafting a running back before the fifth round cemented Mixon’s status for 2023 despite the fact the team would save roughly $10 million by cutting him.
That’s not unheard of right now. The Vikings, a team that just won 13 games last year, just cut Dalvin Cook for similar reasons.
Maybe the Bengals still get with Mixon’s reps about a restructure over the summer that can free up more space while the front office navigates extensions for the likes of Joe Burrow, but the star running back’s feel for the situation has been right the whole time.
