Nothing fairly like some large breaking information in the course of a Friday night, eh?

After months of hypothesis, the Cincinnati Bengals and working again Joe Mixon have reportedly agreed to a contract restructure. Prior to those new, undisclosed numbers (for now), Mixon was tied for fifth within the NFL in common annual worth with Inexperienced Bay’s Aaron Jones at $12,000,000, per Spotrac.

Mixon’s agent, Peter Schaffer, additionally relayed an accompanying assertion, through Adam Schefter’s Twitter account. “Joe’s aim is to win a Tremendous Bowl and play his profession in Cincinnati and that is one of the simplest ways to perform these objectives,” mentioned Mixon’s illustration.

Mixon’s contract has been the goal of restructure talks for months. Per Over The Cap, Mixon’s wage cap quantity in 2023 was set to be $12,791,176 with a $5.5 million lifeless cap quantity.

Cincinnati is eyeing large contract extensions for quarterback Joe Burrow, extensive receivers Tee Higgins and (ultimately) Ja’Marr Chase, in addition to budding star linebacker, Logan Wilson. With questions circulating on how the Bengals will be capable of get all of those carried out to maintain their core stars collectively, Mixon’s contract—an extension by which he signed again in 2020—grew to become a focus of number-crunching.

Moreover, whereas star working backs are nonetheless getting paid to a point, a league-wide devaluation of the place has many veteran ball-carriers in the same place. Mixon’s fellow 2017 draft class working again, Dalvin Cook dinner, was just lately launched by the Minnesota Vikings after a stellar profession with 4 Professional Bowl designations. He additionally signed a mega-extension in 2020.

After touchdown with the Bengals within the second spherical of the 2017, Mixon has not solely turn out to be one of many locker room’s leaders, but additionally one of many prime statistical backs in crew historical past. He’s the No. 5 again in Cincinnati historical past, by way of speeding yards (5,378), whereas putting fourth in speeding touchdowns (40).

He was notably essential within the crew’s drubbing of the Buffalo Payments within the 2022 Divisional Spherical, racking up 123 all-purpose yards (105 speeding, 18 receiving) and a landing within the victory.

Even with the contract discuss over the months and a few unflattering headlines surrounding Mixon this offseason, Cincinnati confirmed plenty of religion in him remaining as their main again in 2023. The Bengals allowed Samaje Perine to stroll in free company, whereas re-signing (seemingly selling) Trayveon Williams and ready to draft a again till the fifth spherical in Illinois’ Chase Brown.

Nonetheless, the writing was on the wall for Mixon right here, largely due to the aforementioned extensions they wish to obtain. Cincinnati has typically waited till the later elements of summer season and into coaching camp to comply with contract extensions/renegotiations, in order to make sure their most valued gamers don’t see free company the next offseason.

We’ll replace you extra as the brand new figures for Mixon’s contract restructure floor.