Bengals, Joe Mixon agree to restructure 2023 contract to keep RB in Cincinnati, per report

The Bengals have been lockstep with star quarterback Joe Burrow regarding negotiations for a long-term contract. That wasn’t the case with Burrow’s backfield mate, running back Joe Mixon, for most of the offseason, but Mixon and the team agreed to a restructure of his four-year, $48 million contract that he signed back in 2020 on Friday evening, according to NFL Media.

The soon-to-be 27-year-old was set to make $10.1 million with a $12.8 million cap hit in the upcoming season, but now that figure is set to decrease for a Bengals team trying to come to terms on contract extensions for not only Burrow but additionally his top two wideouts, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. 

Mixon’s agent revealed in a statement that the running back opted to prioritize chasing a Super Bowl in Cincinnati instead of pursuing his money on the open market. The Bengals would have saved $10 million in cap space by releasing him.

“Joe just agreed to a restructuring of his deal,” Peter Schaffer, Mixon’s agent, said, via NFL Media. “His goal is to win a Super Bowl and play his career in Cincinnati and this is the best way to accomplish these goals.”  

Prior to this restructure, Mixon may have been in jeopardy of being released, something team executive vice president Katie Blackburn told reporters back in March in the wake of a couple of off-field incidents this offseason. 

His once-murky future with the team, however, ultimately seemed tied to his price tag, not his behavior. Mixon was not charged in a shooting that allegedly occurred at his home earlier in March, and he pled not guilty to a charge of aggravated menacing from an alleged separate gun-related incident in January. Blackburn said at the NFL owners meetings in March that she hadn’t recently spoken to Mixon about either incident.

“I don’t want to get into how that might end up, so I don’t know that it’s fair to say anything,” she said in March. “But I…

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