Two years ago at this time, running back Joe Mixon was gearing up for his first season with the Houston Texans. Mixon would go on to rush for 1,016 yards and 11 TDs for the Texans that season. Now, Mixon may be done with the sport of football … and no one is exactly sure why.
Below, we will look at all of the information currently available on the strange Mixon saga.
Is Joe Mixon retired?
In late July, KPRC2 Houston’s Aaron Wilson gave an update on Mixon’s status.
“[Mixon] has not filed his retirement papers, but he has told former teammates from the Bengals that his career is over,” Wilson said on his podcast. “I had a source close to Joe tell me recently that there’s some hope, but I think it’s probably over.
“The good news is that Joe is healthier. He had a surgery, and that surgery helped this offseason. I wish Joe the best … it’s a really unfortunate situation.”
We first got word that Mixon was injured in May of 2025 as he missed the Texans’ OTAs and minicamp, but—at the time—it was not believed to be a major injury.
In July of 2025, the Texans placed Mixon on the NFI list (non-football injury).
How did Joe Mixon get hurt?
Texans GM Nick Caserio was asked many times about Mixon’s status throughout the 2025 NFL season, but Caserio never offered a definitive reason as to how the injury occurred.
“It’s not that I’m trying to be evasive, it’s just a very gray situation,” Caserio said on Sports Radio 610 in November 2025. “Joe’s worked at it. There were times where he’s made progress and other times when the progress is kind of stalled. Players in his situation are on the reserve list until they’re not. Joe’s doing everything he can.
“It’s just a very gray, a lot of ambiguity, there’s not a lot of clarity. It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just the reality of the situation.”
Without Mixon or the Texans ever specifying how the two-time Pro Bowler was hurt, online speculation has run rampant.
“He did not shoot himself in the foot. That’s a ridiculous urban legend. It’s not true at all,” Wilson said on his podcast. “One rumor I’ve heard many times is that he may have dropped a weight on his foot, and then he got treatment on his own, and it did not get better. It got worse, and it got aggravated.”
Gas left in the tank?
The Texans released Mixon on March 6 of this year. Mixon turned 30-years-old on July 24.
When he has been healthy, Mixon has been a consistently strong player. Mixon has five 1,000-plus yard seasons to his name.
He showed no signs of slowing down in 2023, his final season with the Bengals, as he ran for 1,034 yards and 9 TDs. He followed that up with another 1000-plus yard season in 2024 for Houston.
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