Joe Mixon is going to be on the team this year

[CJD]

Whether or not the Bengals keep Mixon will depend entirely on if the Bengals are able to find a really cheap option in the first week of free agency. Mixon has a 3 million dollar roster bonus due on March 17th, and the Bengals will decide between March 11th and March 16th whether to keep him on the roster.

If they don't sign a bell cow back to pair with Chase Brown in that first week of free agency and March 17th passes without a RB signing, I give Mixon a 95% chance of being on the roster in September.

If they don't cut him before that roster bonus, they aren't cutting him at all. They're not going to pay him to not be on the team.

The 5% is if they have a RB that they're targeting in free agency but they haven't quite signed him by March 17th but are confident they can. Then they may cut Mixon before signing anyone else.

But there's no way they cut him and then have just Brown on the roster until the draft.

We'll learn a lot about their plans at RB in that first week of free agency.