Exclusive: Joe Mixon Addresses Future With Bengals Following Offseason Speculation
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It's been a long offseason for Bengals running back Joe Mixon, but that didn't stop him from giving back to the kids of Cincinnati.
Mixon held his annual football camp at Sycamore High School over the weekend, where more than 500 kids showed up to learn new skills with their parents watching from the stands.
“I come out here and do all I can to give back to the kids,” Mixon said in an exclusive interview with All Bengals. “I mean you run on the field and all of a sudden everybody runs up to you and tries to tackle you and they’re like, ‘man, I just love you’ and just little things that the kids say it just reminds me why I do what I do. These are things that I’m going to forever love doing is giving back to the kids and the community and do my best to try to be the best influence that I can for them."
Ja’Marr Chase and Trayveon Williams also showed up on Sunday morning to help their team captain give back to the city they’ve fallen hard for.
“I wanted to come out and show support for the city, the children, and show love back to Cincinnati,” Chase said.
Mixon went from a team that didn’t see the playoffs, went through a coaching change, a quarterback change, and now he finds himself playing for a consistent AFC Championship contender with goals for a second Super Bowl appearance in three years.
“I’m sure a lot of people remember, it was Paul Brown Stadium then and it was Week 13 in my third year and we probably had like 5-10,000 fans in there,” Mixon recalled. “Now we almost have a sold out stadium almost every game. It’s a great thing to see the transition and the fans deserve it and we are going to try everything we can to get past that hump and bring them something that they’ve never had which is a Super Bowl.”
Mixon quickly grew into one of the biggest vocal leaders within Cincinnati’s locker room forging relationships with the vets and embracing the new players who walk through the doors each and every year.
“Mixon is a good guy all around he does great things for everybody in the locker room not just himself,” Chase said. “Every though he’s been through a lot he’s still an amazing person and its hard to see that he’s been through so much and be the person he is today so I support Mixon.”
The Bengals took Mixon in the second round (48th overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft. At the time he was viewed as one of the most talented running backs of his class. Christian McCaffrey was the only player to finish the year with more all-purpose yards per game.
Mixon joined Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard in the Bengals' backfield.
“I remember walking through the doors and everybody is just screaming ‘Mixon, Mixon, Mixon!’ coming across the stage and coming to Paul Brown (Stadium). Those are things and memories that you’ll never forget," Mixon said. "I mean 2017 feels like yesterday, but really it was a long ways away in reality. The constant love and support that I get from the fans I mean I love what I do and I wouldn’t trade it for anything."
There has been a lot of speculation over the past few months regarding Mixon’s future with the Bengals.
Head coach Zac Taylor came to Mixon's defense this offseason, including last week when asked about the Pro Bowl running back.
“I think we’ve got a great relationship with Joe,” Taylor said from the podium. “I’ve appreciated how he’s come into the building every single day and just worked hard. That’s a big reason why we gave him the contract we gave him, his presence with the team. He’s a guy I enjoy being around and we’re counting on him.”
“Zac has always been great to me since day one, since he walked in,” Mixon said.
The 26-year-old has a $12.7 million cap hit this season and rumblings about his future have been consistent throughout the offseason. Despite the speculation, he never questioned his future in Cincinnati.
“You hear a lot of noise but when you don’t pay attention and you don’t hear it none of that effects you,” Mixon said. “What matters most is Mike Brown. He always comes up to me at practice and he’s always happy to see me and that is the best feeling, it doesn’t get better than that.”
His relationship with Brown has allowed him to ignore the fact that his future has been debated all offseason.
“He’s the owner and he makes the decisions and he embraced me since day one and I love Mike and I know Mike loves me too so that’s a great thing to have," Mixon said. "I feel like our front office, everybody is great to me and everybody has backed me 100% and it's a great feeling to have the love and support that I get from them continuously, words really don’t explain how much that means to me.”
Could he take a pay cut? That's another question that many have asked this offseason.
“They’re entitled to their own opinions,” Mixon said. “Sometimes it gets annoying but at the same time they’re not me so how could they understand? I just try to do everything I can and this year I’ll continue to prove why I belong and why they signed me to what they did, you know? I’m very excited and very optimistic about this year as a whole in terms of what I think the Cincinnati Bengals is going to bring to the table."
Mixon has topped the 1,000-yard rushing mark three times. He averaged at least 4.1 yards-per-carry in all three of those seasons.
The chance to prove his doubters wrong and help bring a Lombardi Trophy to Cincinnati motivates him ahead of the 2023 season.
"I’m going to do my best personally to be the best player that I know I am and pretty much break every record that the Bengals have in terms of every running back position," Mixon said. "I just have to do whatever I can to stay solid, pay attention to my reads and do whatever I can to stay on the field.”
Watch our entire 1-on-1 sitdown with Joe Mixon below and subscribe to our YouTube Channel.
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