Bengals Beat: What Joe Mixon Trade Means For Near-Term As Bengals Add RB, TE and Safety

CINCINNATI — The Joe Mixon era is over.

We all knew this was – one way or another – inevitable. The Bengals were not going to pay the $3 million roster bonus by Sunday’s deadline.

As Duke Tobin noted at the NFL Combine, “the clause was put in there for a reason” for both team and player.

If Mixon still showed a lot was left in the tank in the eyes of Bengals personnel decision-makers, then they could easily pay that off and the rest of his two-year restructure that was drawn up last summer.

If not, Mixon could be on his way in free agency, which is the way it appeared it was going Monday night when reports surfaced that the Bengals were intending on cutting Mixon.

But then the Houston Texans – fresh from losing Devin Singletary to the New York Giants – came forward and showed interest in trading for Mixon before he hit free agency. The Bengals still keep the $6.1 savings in salary cap and don’t have to pay him the roster bonus.

The Texans get a 28-year-old running back that is coming off his fourth 1,000-yard rushing season in seven NFL seasons at a reasonable price.

Mixon gets a chance to prove himself for one more season in an offense featuring C.J. Stroud as the quarterback.

All sides get something out of it.

The Bengals just hope the Texans don’t get too much more, especially if the two were to square off in the playoffs next season. The two teams are not scheduled to play each other in the regular season.

To recap, Mixon signed a 4 year contract extension worth $48 million on Sept. 1, 2020. Mixon received a $10 million signing bonus which is the guaranteed portion of that contract.

Mixon then agreed to restructure his contract last summer, reducing his salary in 2023 and 2024 from $10.25 annually to $5.75 million. The new contract reduced Mixon’s 2023 salary cap number by about $4.3 million.

As part of the new contract Mixon received $4.128 million in guarantees. Another $4 million in additional incentives are also available.

If on the roster on the 4th day of the 2023 league year he will earn a $3 million roster bonus, meaning the Texans will assume that as well as paying Mixon his $5.75 million.

Mixon’s career in Cincinnati will be remembered much more for what he did on the field by fans and in the locker room by his teammates than it will for the off-the-field controversies that began with the 2022 playoffs, when he was charged with road rage in one case and a shooting incident on his property in another.

Mixon, drafted in the second round of the 2017 draft and 48th overall, finishes as Cincinnati’s third all-time rushing leader with 6,412 yards, 35 behind James Brooks. Corey Dillon is first with 8,061.

Mixon’s best season came in 2021 when he helped lead the Bengals to Super Bowl LVI with 1,205 yards and 13 touchdowns. He threw a touchdown pass on a halfback option to Tee Higgins in the Super Bowl loss to the Rams.

Mixon was voted captain for his final three seasons in Cincinnati.

As the Bengals move on from Mixon, they now turn to 26-year-old running back Zack Moss, a third-round pick (86th overall) of the Buffalo Bills in 2020. The Bengals, per reports, are signing him to a very low-risk two-year, $8 million deal, that includes a $4.525 million payout in year one, per Adam Schefter.

Moss is someone who can fit easily into the Bengals versatile run game. It’s pretty clear from this signing that they are not expecting their running backs to carry a huge part of the load but they are looking for more bang for their buck when they do touch the ball.

The Bengals are trying to get away from “he gets what’s blocked” mentality that former OC Brian Callahan famously said of Mixon midway through last season.

In two seasons splitting time with Jonathan Taylor on the Colts in 2022 and ’23, Moss ran 259 times for 1,159 yards and six touchdowns. He averaged 4.5 yards per carry, nearly a full half-yard more than Mixon in his last three seasons.

Moss figures to be that complement to second-year back Chase Brown.

In the passing game, tight end Mike Gesicki – after one ill-fated season in New England – comes to Cincinnati on a one-year, $3.25 million deal.

The Bengals are looking for the Gesicki that produced very good numbers from the tight end position in 2019, ’20 and ’21. In those three seasons, he total 570, 703 and 780 yards, respectively. He caught 51, 53 and 73 passes. He was very productive in that offense. Can he rediscover that production in Cincinnati?

Meanwhile, Irv Smith Jr. is moving on, signing a one-year deal with Kansas City to join Travis Kelce in the tight end room.

On defense, the Bengals indeed did choose to add a safety with ball-hawking potential to their back-end, signing 24-year-old Geno Stone away from Baltimore on a two-year, $15 million deal with a $6 million signing bonus.

He had a safety-leading seven interceptions in 2023 for the AFC North champs, including one in the red zone in Week 2 to help the Ravens beat the Bengals in Cincinnati.

And since Tee Higgins’ agent David Mulugheta put out his trade demand on Monday through his national contacts in the media, it’s worth noting that the Bengals hold all the leverage here.

It’s not yet turned bitter as Mulugheta made it clear that he still loves Cincinnati and would like to play for the Bengals long-term. Just not for the tag number of $21.8 million.

While Higgins could certainly choose to and will likely go the Jessie Bates route of not reporting to OTAs or mandatory minicamp in June, it would be shocking to see Higgins miss out on his $21.8 million by sitting out training camp and not playing this fall in Stripes. He wants to play for a contender and he wants to get paid. Pretty simple. And he needs to still prove he’s an elite receiver worthy of a nine-figure contract. Those aren’t earned on the sidelines.

Of course, the Bengals could get a silly offer from a desperate team with playoff hopes, thinking Higgins would be just the weapon they need. Would the Bengals really consider moving Higgins to an AFC team they would have to face in a playoff? Almost certainly not.

They know Higgins is entering his prime. Mixon is a much different case.

What remains?

Right tackle (1):

With Jonah Williams likely getting big money elsewhere, the Bengals have a hole here and aren’t likely to fill it just with a draft pick in April. They’d like a plug-and-play veteran in the mold of Ted Karras and Alex Kappa to allow a rookie to come in and learn the NFL game. Adding high priced linemen through free agency is just the cost of doing business in the NFL because it takes time for many to develop, something Frank Pollack acknowledged in Indy.

Best available: Trent Brown, Jonah Williams
More likely: Jermaine Eluemunor, George Fant

Defensive tackle (2):

With free agent DJ Reader likely not available to start the season and possibly headed elsewhere, the Bengals have an immediate need to add depth here to complement BJ Hill. They are likely in the market for two interior tackles in free agency and another in the draft.

Best available: Christian Wilkins
More likely: Teair Tart, Sheldon Rankins, Daquan Jones

When looking at this week, remember a few things:

The Bengals do NOT treat free agency like someone who just won Powerball. They never have and don’t expect that to begin now. As much as there is an urgency to winning that first Super Bowl, they’re not going to compromise the window with Joe Burrow by making rash financial decisions.

Don’t be fooled by the $30 million increase in the cap. The Bengals and most other NFL teams were already anticipating a rise to about $250 million. And the Tee Higgins $21.8 million obligation took up a chunk of that. The Bengals anticipate being fully invested in the upcoming season, both from a cash and a cap standpoint. The $30 million bump did little to change that.

They are not going to gamble at the free agency poker table, mortgaging their future 2-3 years down the road, not with Joe Burrow as their franchise quarterback. They approach it within their means. This doesn’t always please their fan base but they ensure that – as they like to say inside the building – “let football make the football decisions”. In other words, don’t get into a bind where you’re cutting valuable players because you’re up against the cap.

They philosophically believe discipline is a good thing. They believe in fully funding their NFL players’ pension plan. They’ve always believed in rewarding their own players who are loyal to the organization and this is one way of doing it. But that requires cash and that is all part of the $255 million cap for 2024.

They also believe in two-way commitments. Sign a contract, accept the risks – positive and negative – and be disciplined with the approach. That line, more than any other, explains their approach in free agency. Yes, they’re going to spend. But they’re not going to overextend. Never have. Never will.

The Bengals always think in terms of worst-case scenario with any free agent deal. If a player doesn’t work out, what is the cost of letting him go. This is why the Bengals almost never cut a free agent loose before the end of the contract because they accept the responsibility of the bonus money they’re paying out and the cap implications. The Bengals respect the rules of the cap perhaps more than any other NFL team.

The Bengals have often been criticized for not spending in free agency over the years but go further and you’ll see that they spend to their limit and just don’t overextend.