The Seattle Seahawks desperately need help at running back, and for a moment, it looked like veteran free agent Joe Mixon was going to be part of the answer. Instead, Seattle walked away before a deal was ever finalized.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter posted on X that the Seahawks won’t be signing the former Pro Bowl back after all:

“As it turns out, the Seahawks decided not to sign veteran running back Joe Mixon to their practice squad after he underwent a physical for the team, per league source. Mixon will remain a free agent.”

View this post on Instagram

Seahawks’ Joe Mixon decision came down to the physical

Here’s where the story takes a turn. Seattle had every intention of bringing Mixon aboard, at least until the doctors got a look at him. Brady Henderson, who covers the Seahawks for ESPN, laid out the plan in his reporting for ESPN:

“Sources that told ESPN on Monday that the team planned to sign Mixon, who did not play in 2025 due to a foot injury, but that was contingent on passing a physical.”

So the picture becomes pretty clear. Mixon arrived in Seattle, the Seahawks expected to sign him, and then the physical changed everything. Something with that foot concerned the team enough that it wasn’t comfortable adding him to the practice squad.

Keep in mind, that’s not a 53-man roster spot with a big guarantee attached. It’s a practice squad deal, about as low-risk as roster moves get in the NFL. For the Seahawks to pass on that tells you how serious their concerns were.

As for the Seahawks themselves, this doesn’t move the needle much. Seattle has already added other players at the position, and it remains without Jadarian Price and Zach Charbonnet. The player the front office wanted to help fill that void simply isn’t coming, so the search continues.

What happened to Joe Mixon in Houston?

The truth is, this story is much bigger than Seattle’s running back room. It’s about Mixon, and what exactly happened to him during his time with the Houston Texans.

John McClain, who has covered the Texans and the NFL as a whole for decades, posted his reaction on X, and it’s about as blunt as it gets:

“Joe Mixon is out of the Witness Protection Program. In all my decades of covering the NFL, I’ve never seen a stranger injury case. The Texans refused to talk about it. Mixon was never available. I’ve never seen a team or a player go to such lengths to refuse to disclose, to refuse to disclose an injury. I don’t know what the heck’s going on with Joe Mixon’s foot.”

When a reporter with that many years on the beat says he’s never seen anything like it, you have to take notice. Houston stayed silent about the injury, Mixon stayed out of the public eye, and now the first team to put him through a physical has decided to pass.

That’s three red flags stacked on top of each other, and none of them come with an explanation.

To be fair to Mixon, he had a great run with the Cincinnati Bengals and was still productive before the Houston injury. He’s been one of the more reliable backs in the league for a long time, and nobody should forget that.

But the way I see it, his NFL career could very well be over, and I don’t know if he will ever play again.