New NFL rule could've kept Bengals from drafting Joe Mixon
The vast majority of the NFL didn't have Joe Mixon on their NFL Draft boards in 2017. His year long suspension from three prior years for striking a female in college even kept him out of the Scouting Combine. But the Cincinnati Bengals had faith in Mixon, enough to make him a second-round pick and […]
The vast majority of the NFL didn't have Joe Mixon on their NFL Draft boards in 2017. His year long suspension from three prior years for striking a female in college even kept him out of the Scouting Combine.
But the Cincinnati Bengals had faith in Mixon, enough to make him a second-round pick and their lead running back by the end of his rookie season. Their faith has persisted after six years, one major contract extension, and one pay cut later.
The Bengals have always been a team willing to give players with checkered pasts chances to redeem themselves, but if Mixon's situation occurred in today's NFL, he may not have ended up in Cincinnati.
Why? The NFL updated its Personal Conduct Policy, which now "includes language that opens the door to the possibility of imposing discipline on a player for conduct that happened before he joined the NFL," per Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio.
In his report, Florio outlines the wording of the new document which reads, "Nothing in this Policy should be read to limit the league’s authority to investigate or discipline potential Policy violations alleged to have occurred before a player is under contract or Draft-eligible."
In other words, if the Policy doesn't limit the NFL, then it can "investigate or discipline" a player before he's under contract or eligible for the NFL Draft.
The league would've been able to investigate Mixon's case and decide to suspend him for X amount of games based on their own findings and judgement, which isn't bound by anything.
Had Mixon been given a significant suspension before he even became an NFL player, the Bengals may've been out on Mixon entirely, especially during the early portion of the draft. They put in plenty of work and resources vetting him before drafting him, but if he wasn't able to play for most of his rookie season, a different direction may've been taken. After all, this was the same draft class that had Dalvin Cook and Alvin Kamara ending up as Day 2 selections along with Mixon.
Despite this logic, there's still a good chance the Bengals would've taken the swing on Mixon regardless. The fact that he was the third back to start his rookie season meant he wasn't truly needed to play until later on anyways. The Bengals could've afforded to wait, but they also could've been able to wait to select Mixon later in the draft as well.
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Featured image via © Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK
