Joe Mixon Traded To Texans: Fantasy Football Impact & Takeaways (2024)

The next addition to the RB market frenzy sees the Bengals trading Joe Mixon to the Texans. He will join an up-and-coming team with exciting playmakers, including QB C.J. Stroud, WR Tank Dell, and WR Nico Collins.

Let’s examine the immediate implications and fantasy football impact of Mixon agreeing to terms with the Texans.

Joe Mixon Agrees to Deal With Houston Texans

Joe Mixon’s no longer a free agent, garnering a trade to the Houston Texans as their future bell cow with C.J. Stroud.

Mixon was RB12 in points per game and RB5 overall through 18 weeks in 2023. He played all 17 games and finished 8th in RB snap rate (69%). Also ended the year fourth in red zone carries.

The former Bengal was essentially a three-down bell cow from Weeks 1-12 until the Bengals started to feature rookie Chase Brown more in the backfield. Mixon’s target share (11%) stayed the same, but his route participation (42% vs 48%) dipped with Brown in the lineup.

With a three-down skill set entering his age-28 season, it’s very plausible Mixon still has plenty left in the tank to be productive for Houston. Their OL was ravaged by injuries a year ago and should be much improved.

Dameon Pierce is a zero in the passing game, setting Mixon up for a high snap share and fringe fantasy RB1 status. Adding a back of Mixon’s caliber made the most sense for Houston, given it can take the offense to another level. We saw a three-down back in CMC go nuclear in the 49ers offense the past two seasons. With the Texans under OC Bobby Slowik, we could see this offense take off with Mixon (and his fantasy managers) as a main benefactor.

Slowik runs a heavy outside zone run scheme, which Mixon was just okay/below average in last season. 3.5 yards per carry (39th), 4.3% explosive run rate (18th), 25th in stuff rate and 36th in yards after contact per attempt, and 21st in success rate per FantasyPoints data suite.

Note that Devin Singletary averaged 3.4 ypc, a less explosive run rate of 3.6%, a 55% stuff rate (11th), fewer yards after contact per attempt and a 37.5% success rate (worse than Mixon).

Singletary was only better than Mixon in the stuff rate metric. Low-end to mid-range RB2 seems like Mixon’s floor, given what we saw an inferior rusher in Singletary do behind a Texans patchwork OL last season.

Needless to say, I don’t envision Mixon leading the NFL in rushing, but the equity he has in the passing game, red zone and healthy OL make the situation highly ideal for fantasy purposes. Just be wary that with the landing spot fueling Mixon’s potential, there’s a chance he will become overvalued in 2024 drafts.