Mixon Continues To Impress Marvin Lewis

[BFritz21]

Apparently, Mixon is showing the ability and talent to be a dominant, big play star like they knew he was when they drafted him, and Mixon is showing the maturity to want to learn and grow as a player.

This Yahoo! article has me excited........ even the title has me excited because Marvin is normally not outspoken on rookies, even if he has been warming up to the idea that rookies are as NFL ready as they'v ever been.

Joe Mixon continues to impress Marvin Lewis

Quote:The Bengals like what they have seen from Joe Mixon, and Marvin Lewis isn’t shy about sharing the fact that the rookie running back will get plenty of chances this season.

“His personality, his work ethic, how he comes and approaches practice every day,” Lewis said, via Geoff Hobson of the team website. “From the very first rookie camp here in Cincinnati, you felt that, but you aren’t sure because it’s a very limited exposure. Now that’s a day-to-day thing with the ups and downs in camp — being tired, being asked to run and finish every play. He likes to do that. He likes to run down that field like he is scoring a touchdown, and we are going to give him a lot of opportunities to do that. That’s just part of his makeup, and that’s good. He can never lose that. That’s the other part of it; you don’t want him to lose that. I hope he keeps that enthusiasm that he has now.”

If he has that kind of passion and enthusiasm in practice, imagine how much he'll love playing and getting in the endzone on game day.

I also love his work ethic how he's wanting to finish every play, even when he's tired. I'm hoping that his desire for the game and to go all-out rubs off on other players, particularly the line, because, if they see a guy going that hard, they'll want to block that much harder for him.

Quote:Jeremy Hill was the Bengals’ leading rusher last season, with 222 carries for 839 yards and nine touchdowns. Mixon could get more chances this season than Hill did last season. But Cincinnati wants to find out how good Mixon is at picking up the blitz, which they will start discovering this week.

“He’s very natural at the other stuff, and then he is going to get an opportunity to protect the quarterback,” Lewis said. “The rest of the stuff he does very naturally, like running or catching. But [I want to see] his pad level, and making sure his tracks are correct. Those are the things we are going to continue to evaluate and make sure he gets up to speed on and stays consistent. So far, he has been very good with that, and I don’t expect that to change.”

Sounds Marvin just wants to make sure he can pass protect but then that Hill could be an afterthought.

He can't do anything without blocking, and the line still scares me, but, if they can even be average, I think we're looking at a HUGE year from him.

ESPN wrote a similar article with basically the same substance:

Marvin Lewis on Joe Mixon: "I hope he never loses his enthusiasm"

Quote:CINCINNATI -- Rookie running back Joe Mixon seems to know he's good. It hasn't taken long for the rest of the Cincinnati Bengals to see that as well.

Take Tuesday, for example: In the last padded practice prior to the preseason opener Friday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Mixon essentially embarrassed fellow rookie Carl Lawson, who has been no slouch during camp.

If Mixon has been the star offensive rookie, Lawson certainly has been the star defensive rookie. But Mixon got the best of him on that particular play.

Lawson, the outside linebacker, tried to follow Mixon as he rounded the corner, but he lost his footing and fell to the turf as Mixon raced down the sideline for a touchdown.

I've been very open about how excited I am about Lawson, so the fact that Mixon is making plays on him has me excited.

Then, to keep the fun in the game, Mixon did this:

Quote:Mixon took it a step further. He jogged back slowly, gave visiting fans high-fives and screamed, "Too easy!" That continued until a coach told him to get back to the sideline.

I LOVE that because he's still just having fun without being an over-the-top asshole and he even got the fans involved, which, if he's celebrating with the fans, then he'll keep playing for the fans. Doesn't seem like the troubled player with red flags that teams stayed away from.

However, Marvin wasn't there to see it, which it most likely would have pissed him off:

Quote:Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, who left practice early to deal with a knee issue, wasn't there to see that.

Over the years, Lewis has made it clear he doesn't like individuals putting themselves over the team. This summer, he even said he wasn't a fan of the NFL's relaxed stance on celebration penalties.

If Marvin would have gotten mad at that, I might have rolled down to the stadium and went off because that wasn't putting himself over the team, he's just playing with enthusiasm, and high-fiving was just showing the fans that he's playing for them.

In the next paragraph, it says how Marvin pretty much hated Chad's antics, but then mentions how even he might have smiled at Mixon, which he should because that's not overly showboating or anything:

Quote:Even Lewis might have shook his head and smiled on Tuesday. What he likes to see is enthusiasm, and Mixon has that, along with a strong work ethic. Lewis hopes both of those things never go away.

I doubt that Mixon ever goes over the top but I pray that Marvin never tries to stop him from being enthusiastic and excited:

Quote:"That’s just part of his makeup, and that’s good. He can never lose that. That’s the other part of it, you don’t want him to lose that. I hope he keeps that enthusiasm that he has now. We have to continue with that because he is still a very young guy.”

The rest is just more from the above article, which there's a bit more in both, but I think I hit all the major points.

Like I said above, the blocking scares me, but let's hope that they step-it-up!

Looks like Hill has A LOT to be worried about and I'm loving Mixon!