Fantasy Football Busts: Joe Mixon & Najee Harris (2023)

The NFL season is fast approaching, and every year one of the most exciting parts of fantasy football is taking stands on players with shaky job security. These players tend to be available cheaper than they have been in previous years, or the shakiness is baked into the cost of acquiring them in 2023.

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2023 Fantasy Football Draft Kit

Starters with Shaky Job Security

Joe Mixon (RB – CIN)

With Samaje Perine moving on from the Bengals in free agency, it felt like there was a chance Mixon could revert to complete workhorse duties without so much of a doubt. Still, the Bengals seemingly weren’t happy that they were paying Mixon substantially more than Perine last year, and often it was Perine who looked like the better running back.

Mixon agreed to a hefty pay cut to stay with the team, seeing his base salary drop by almost $7m for this year and while it could be spun that Mixon staying with the team is positive, the other side of that coin is that the Bengals are now far less invested in Mixon than they were previously and could easily decide to give him fewer touches if he fails to impress this year.

Najee Harris

Jaylen Warren has made it very hard to envision Najee Harris returning to the workhorse days he had under Ben Roethlisberger when he played 85% of snaps, significantly higher than 2022’s 66%. Warren outproduced Harris in Yards Per Carry (4.8 vs 3.8) and Yards Per Reception (8.3 vs 5.5).

Harris blamed his lack of explosiveness on the injury, but it might just simply be truer that Warren is a more explosive player. Harris has the more extensive investment in himself from the team, costing a first-round pick in 2021. Warren is an undrafted free agent, but we’re approaching year three of Harris’s career, and that investment is mattering less and less as his career goes on.

Najee Harris is fantasy football’s Taylor Swift.

Consistent, high-volume performer, & you pretty much know what you’re getting.

But massively overpriced & not a special talent relative to their peers.

— David J. Gautieri (@GuruFantasyWrld) July 10, 2023