Will Joe Mixon's fantasy value plummet in 2023?

In the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast, analysts Scott Pianowski and Frank Schwab examine Cincinnati running back Joe Mixon's future after a lackluster output in the AFC Championship Game.

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

SCOTT PIANOWSKI: Bengals we can give post-mortem to. Interesting. What could be Joe Mixon's last game as a Bengal-- and we don't know what they'll do with Perine. He's a free agent as well. Perine out-snapped Mixon in this game, and I don't think Mixon--

FRANK SCHWAB: Did he really?

SCOTT PIANOWSKI: --got hurt.

FRANK SCHWAB: I knew he played a lot, but wow.

SCOTT PIANOWSKI: Out-snapped him. It was Perine who got the touchdown. I believe the Bengals can save about $10 million if they cut Joe Mixon. And we know running backs in that late 20s age pocket can be kind of dangerous picks.

Not only do I not want to draft Mixon next year, I think there's a good chance the Bengals, who are kind of a notoriously penny-pinching team-- we know they need to put more resources in the offensive line. It's funny. They had no problems blocking Buffalo a week ago, but the Chiefs were in Burrow's grill all game. They basically sacked him--

FRANK SCHWAB: Chris Jones, man. Woo, is he good.

SCOTT PIANOWSKI: --four times before the anthem was over. And then, yeah they don't chip Chris Jones on the final Cincinnati offensive snap, and Jones basically takes a direct route to Burrow. That play was dead on arrival. Do you see Mixon coming back? Do you have some comments, a post-mortem comment, on the Cincinnati backfield?

FRANK SCHWAB: I don't see Mixon coming back because, again, he's good, but he wasn't great this year. We saw a little bit of, OK, he's had a lot of miles. You don't want to invest in that position, unless you're-- look, there's about three or four guys who, yeah, OK, yeah, Barkley maybe, McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor when he's up, if he can get healthy.

There's a few guys. Mixon ain't one of them anymore. If he does come back to the Bengals, I would not be proactively drafting him anywhere, not even maybe reactively drafting him anywhere. I thought he, other than that one huge five, six-touchdown game, he had a really kind of mediocre year, I thought. The fact that Perine played more than him in the biggest game of the year is telling.

So I don't think he'll be back. I think they'll draft somebody mid rounds, try to find a cheaper veteran, something like that. Because this team, I think, even though Zac Taylor likes to run the ball-- I mean, he does value it-- I just don't see him coming back with that price tag. I really don't. And if he does, I wouldn't be that excited about him.