The Cincinnati Bengals traded running back Joe Mixon to the Houston Texans in March 2024, and the Texans promptly signed him to a three-year, $27 million contract extension.
After quarterback C.J. Stroud, the 2023 No. 2 overall pick, emerged as a star in his rookie season, the Texans went all in for 2024, and Mixon held up his end with 1,016 yards and 11 touchdowns.
While the Texans continued toward contender status last year, mostly due to an otherworldly defense, Mixon did not play a single snap.
Mixon, 29, was placed on the active/non-football injury list last July and maintained a non-football injury designation all season. Rumors swirled about his foot injury, though confirmed details were sparse. But KPRC 2 Houston’s Texans beat reporter Aaron Wilson provided a stunning — and sad — update on Mixon’s NFL future.
“It was a foot injury, and then it went bad, and he had an infection,” Wilson said during a YouTube livestream. “And then he got all this alternate treatment. It didn’t work out. It got worse. I heard he had lack of blood flow to the foot. He did not shoot himself. That is absolutely false. The gunshot allegations are not true. He even went overseas for treatment and went to this guy in Florida to get some treatment on his foot. It didn’t work out.”
Wilson continued, “He pretty recently had surgery, and he has a good outlook as far as just life. He has told some friends previously of the Cincinnati Bengals, where he played before, that he is not gonna play football anymore. Not real surprising. We’ll see what happens, but he won’t be playing here. They’ve moved on. He’s moved on. It’s an unfortunate situation.”
The Texans honored Mixon’s request for release and released him with a non-football injury designation in March.
Wilson clarified that Mixon has not officially filed his retirement papers, though he has told former teammates that “his career is over.” An anonymous source close to Mixon told Wilson that there “is some hope” that he could resume his NFL career, but Wilson believes that “it’s probably over.”
“One rumor I’ve heard a lot of times — I’ve heard it many times — is that he may have dropped a weight on his foot, and then he got treatment on his own, and it did not get better,” Wilson added.
Mixon has not publicly confirmed the details around his initial injury, his recovery, or his future.
The Texans drafted running back Woody Marks out of USC in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL Draft and acquired veteran running back David Montgomery from the Detroit Lions in March to form their new backfield.
If this is it for Mixon, he walks away from the NFL with 7,428 rushing yards and 60 rushing touchdowns across eight seasons. The Bengals drafted Mixon out of Oklahoma in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft, and he spent seven years there before moving to Houston.