Breaking News: Cincinnati Bengals’ 2024 Free Agency Banishment of Prolific Running Back Is Made Public

Now that the Cincinnati Bengals have finally offloaded the bloated salary of high-profile running back Joe Mixon, they have officially joined the rest of the league running the tandem running back model.  Mixon will arguably go down as one of the most accomplished running back in the history of Cincinnati football but in the end, his lack of explosivity completely dismantled his value to the franchise and the team decided to go on a lower risk trajectory moving in the backfield moving forward.

Cincinnati Bengals New Tandem Running Back Approach

Historically, the Bengals franchise has fought change even as the rest of the NFL  went with the dual running back strategy.  Mixon was just the latest in a long line of talented breadwinners at the running back position that earned the majority of the carries out of the Cincinnati backfield.  It shouldn’t surprise you then that Cincinnati hasn’t had an elite running game any time in their recent history.

While the team’s ownership has a tendency to be painfully stubborn, not even they could avoid the absolute deterioration of running back contracts that has happened over the past five years.  While the position used to be the focal point of a team in the National Football League, it is arguably the least valued position on the entire field at this point.

Almost in tandem with the announcement that Mixon had been traded to the Houston Texans for a negligible seventh round pick was the news that Cincinnati had signed former Indianapolis Colts backup running back Zack Moss.  Moss has been a perfectly adequate running back over the course of his five-year career after being drafted in the third round out of Utah in 2020 by racking up 2,000 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns over that span.