Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon sees the “rumors” about his potentially leaving the team this offseason.
And he sure has some thoughts about it.
To set the stage, Pro Football Network’s Jay Morrison wrote this week that there’s an “expectation” that Mixon won’t be back with the team.
Mixon, who took a pay cut to stay with the team last year, has one year left on his current contract, though Spotrac notes that there’s an “out” built into it this offseason that the team could use.
An aggregator account on Twitter picked up the story — and so did Mixon:
Lmao y’all said this last year too 🤦🏽♂️🤣
That’s 🤡 behavior https://t.co/hK9nNbYxUy— ⚡️Primetime!!!⚡️ (@Joe_MainMixon) February 15, 2024
Mixon has made it clear he wants to stay in Cincinnati and there’s a chance he might after rushing for 1,034 yards (4.0 average) and nine scores and catching another 52 passes for 376 yards and three scores.
There’s an argument the Bengals might want to get even younger at the position and they might. But the pay cut last year reportedly slashed $4.39 million off his 2023 contract and $4.67 million in 2024, leaving next year’s cap hit right around $8.8 million, same as 2023.
The team will need to decide if it requires a chunk of that change for things like Tee Higgins’ expected franchise tag and outside free agents, but it has plenty of cap space as it is.
