One of the NFL’s biggest mysteries became a little more mysterious on Thursday.
Texans running back Joe Mixon has spent the entire season, from the start of training camp, on the non-football injury list. He has a foot injury. No one knows what the specific injury is, how it happened, or how long it will keep him out of action.
Earlier, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reported that Mixon is not expected to play at all in 2025.
Tha prompted a tweet from Mixon himself. “Now, I get everyone’s looking for splash news & clickbait… but I’m just curious, Ian how do you know more about me than me?” Mixon said.
Mixon’s agent, Peter Schaffer, chimed in with an attack on the messenger: “The truth and what comes out of his mouth is mere coincidence.”
But Rapoport isn’t the only one who said it. DJ Bien-Aime of ESPN.com has reported the same thing.
While the Texans under G.M. Nick Caserio have generally run a Belichick-style, no-leak operation, someone has clearly been talking about Mixon’s status. Whether they’re saying something that is accurate remains to be seen.
Surely, Mixon is trying to get healthy enough to play. His placement on NFI gives the Texans the prerogative to pay none of his $7 million salary. (It’s unknown whether they’re paying him.) He’s also not earning weekly per-game roster bonuses that total, over the course of the season, $500,000.
Thursday’s reports are the first tangible item of news regarding Mixon, other than periodic (and vague) on-the-record comments made by the team. At this stage of the season, saying Mixon isn’t “expected” to play hardly equates to sliding onto the outer reaches of a thin, crackly branch.
The real questions — what’s the injury and how did it happen? — remain unanswered. If someone who claims to know Mixon’s status is talking, that’s what the reporters should be trying to get them to talk about.
