The Fantasy Couch Featured Article: Joe Mixon

I had over 40 analysts help me with creating player write ups for the 200+ players included in my 2020 Draft Guide. The criteria I gave was basically, say what you want and try to keep it to around 100-150 words. When I asked @fantasycouch, being the pro that he is, he said “No problem, how soon do you need it?” Then he sent me a 650 word mini biography on Joe Mixon. Talk about going above and beyond....and being a terrible direction follower 🤣. Totally kidding. It’s hard enough to keep Mixon under 100 rushing yards, let alone 100 words. I really enjoyed his write up, and being that we are both really high on Mixon this year, I decided to turn his analysis into a featured article. The floor is yours 🛋.

Fantasy Couch — Mixon is what every team wants from their running back on the field. He can do everything. He has ideal speed (4.43s 40 time), especially for his size (6-1, 220 lbs). He has power and knows how to gain yards no matter the situation. Even though he was on by-far the worst team last year, he still beasted the last eight weeks of the regular season averaging 18.2 fantasy points per game on the Bungles.

Here are the red flags... The first half of the season Mixon was terrible (10.0 fpts/game). It was so bad that by the time he turned things on, it was too late for fantasy owners and they ended up missing the playoffs because of him (not a personal anecdote from my 12-team money auction league). But I'd rather have a player turn things on and end the season on a good note (a la Derrick Henry late 2018) than start off fast and be on the decline.

Mixon has a fire burning inside of him and really turned it on. I see a fierce competitor who is just as competitive as any other player in the league. But I also have seen immaturity and some bad decision making. He showed up to rookie minicamp 10 pounds overweight but quickly lost the weight and said he'll "never be that heavy again". As far as bad decisions go, let's talk about the elephant in the room... I believe the college incident where he assaulted a female was an isolated incident and something like that will never happen again. How do I know this? Because I personally know Joe Mixon and have worked with him. I believe he is a good person, and without getting into the details of the incident, I would just say that there was a lot more to it than was publicized. Not defending his actions by any means, but as far as giving you fantasy advice, I am confident he won't be getting into any serious trouble off the field and that he learned his lesson.

As far as the holdout talk... well the Bengals didn't draft a running back in the 2020 NFL Draft and they have the cap space, so as long as Mixon isn't trying to see Zeke nor C-Mac money, I think the Bengals will get 'er done. If you believe in Joe Burrow like I do and the Bengals do, then you should invest in Joe Mixon. If you're afraid of the holdout talks, you still think the Bengals will be the worst team in 2020 and you have serious question marks about Joe "Exotic" Burrow, then I recommend you target him early round 2 in one or two of your leagues and avoid him in the rest. Me, I'm drafting him at the end of round 1 because I'm a risk taker. Mixon is a natural pass catcher and I expect his 35 receptions he had in 2019 to double this upcoming season. We saw running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire catch 55 passes from Burrow the last year in college, and Mixon can easily surpass that.

When I worked with Mixon I was fortunate enough to film one of his work outs. Running comes natural to almost every NFL running back as long as they're settled in with their team and offensive linemen. So pass-catching and conditioning is all he really works on, and he works hard. Burrow is going to uplift this team and the entire city of Cincinnati and I want a piece of that offense on my fantasy team.

Click Here to watch the last 90 seconds of my video to see the workout footage with Joe Mixon.

 @fantasycouch