Joe Mixon took a giant leap in his sophomore season due to a number of factors. Jeremy Hill fled Cincy for New England last offseason, opening up the majority of the team’s carries, and Mixon took full advantage. His 237 carries were 8th in football and he finished as fantasy’s RB9 — and 4th in the league in rushing — despite missing 2 games to injury, cementing himself as a bona fide RB1 for 2019 and beyond.
A telling stat from Mixon’s season that shows how much he’s grown: he averaged about 2.8 yards after contact per carry in 2018, and after 5 fumbles on 229 touches in his rookie season, he didn’t fumble on any of his 280 touches this past season. He was able to completely surpass Gio Bernard on Cincy’s RB totem pole, and that trend should continue with new HC Zac Taylor in charge. In Taylor’s two years on the Rams offensive staff, the team’s 2nd RB never topped 63 attempts. Taylor-led offenses lean on their top guy, and Mixon is undoubtedly Cincinnati’s RB1 as we enter 2019. As we know by now, McVay’s system is dependent on “marriage between the run and pass games,” and riding one back keeps defenses constantly guessing. If Taylor emulates this in Cincinnati as we expect, Mixon will thrive as a three-down workhorse.
Mixon finished the season on a roll, with only Derrick Henry outrushing him from Week 12 on, which only adds to his intrigue heading into next year. Mixon is at RB9 on The Wolf’s most recent 2019 Big Board, and you’ll probably need to shell out a late 1st/early 2nd round pick to nab him. He’s well worth that price and would be perfect to pair with a target hog like Julio Jones.
