What Happened to Joe Mixon?
Joe Mixon is currently sidelined for the entire 2025 NFL season with a lingering foot injury and has not played a snap for the Houston Texans this year.
The issue started as a foot/ankle problem in the 2025 offseason and never really cleared up, leading the team to keep him on the PUP/non‑football injury list instead of rushing him back just because the offense looked better with him on the field.
NFL insider Adam Schefter, posting on X under the handle @AdamSchefter, reported that the Texans have placed running back Joe Mixon on the Non-Football Injury list, confirming his continued absence from the active roster.
For a guy who just crossed 1,000 rushing yards in 2024 and looked like a steady veteran centerpiece, it is a pretty harsh twist: one year you are carrying the load, next year you are watching Nick Chubb and Woody Marks take your snaps on game day.
Texans fans have been stuck in that weird space of missing his patience and vision in the run game while also admitting the committee backfield has held up better than expected.
There is also the cloud of Mixon’s past legal controversies, including an aggravated menacing charge in 2023 and a later civil lawsuit that was settled in 2025, which sometimes gets bundled into “what happened to Joe Mixon?” even though his current absence is injury‑related, not a new suspension.
Joe Mixon’s Recovery and Return Timeline
Joe Mixon is not expected to return at any point in the 2025 season, and there is still no firm public timetable for his on‑field comeback beyond “wait until 2026 and see.”
Reports in November 2025 made it clear the Texans were planning to go the whole year without him, and that has held true right through the late‑season and playoff push.
The team and his camp have been pretty quiet about the exact nature of the foot injury, which always makes fans nervous because vague foot issues for running backs rarely sound like “quick fix, no big deal.”
Instead, the Texans shifted their planning: trade for Nick Chubb, lean more on Woody Marks, and treat any Mixon snaps as a bonus that never arrived.
From a career‑arc perspective, this stretch feels like a hinge moment. At 29, with heavy mileage and a full missed year, the next healthy season if 2026 brings one will likely decide whether Mixon is still viewed as a lead back or more of a veteran rotational piece.
Fantasy players, of course, already treated him like a ghost roster spot in 2025, the kind you keep refreshing updates on even though the answer stays the same every week: not playing.
Joe Mixon Stats
Joe Mixon’s most recent full season came in 2024 with the Texans, where he logged 1,016 rushing yards and 11 rushing touchdowns on 245 carries, averaging 4.1 yards per carry.
He also added over 300 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown, giving Houston exactly what it hoped for when it made him the featured back in Bobby Slowik’s offense.
To put it in simple terms, those 2024 numbers looked like a veteran who still had plenty left:
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Rushing attempts: 245
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Rushing yards: 1,016
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Rushing TDs: 11
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Yards per carry: 4.1
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Receptions: 52
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Receiving yards: 309
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Receiving TDs: 1
In 2025, the stat line is brutally short: zero games, zero carries, zero anything, as he has stayed on the PUP/NFI list the entire year while others handle the Texans’ backfield workload.
For anyone tracking Joe Mixon injury news, that contrast a productive 2024 followed by a completely lost 2025 season is the core of what changed and why his name keeps coming up in Texans and NFL discussions right now.
Disclaimer: This information is for general news and educational purposes only, based on publicly available reports about Joe Mixon’s injury, legal history, and NFL performance. It is not medical, legal, betting, or fantasy advice, and situations can change quickly with new team updates, roster moves, or league decisions.
