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Most notably, the Bengals will be breaking in a new quarterback. No. 1 overall pick Joe Burrow will be the guy right away, and even as a rookie he is simply more talented than Andy Dalton.
Cincinnati circled back in the second round and took Tee Higgins. He’ll join A.J. Green (assuming he stays healthy and is not traded) and the underappreciated Tyler Boyd to form a nice wide receiver trio.
The Bengals offensive line should be better this year. 2019 first-round pick offensive tackle Jonah Williams will be back from injury, and guard Xavier Su’a-Filo should be an automatic upgrade.
Giovani Bernard’s niche is on passing downs. But his 91 targets over the last two seasons are less than Mixon’s total in that time (100). By any measure than can be cited, Mixon has been the more productive pass catcher over the last two seasons.
Contract drives can be overvalued, but it should be noted that Mixon is entering the final year of his rookie deal. A holdout is a possibility if he doesn’t get a new contract. In any case, the former second-round pick should be plenty motivated this season.
Mixon’s 354-carry 16-game pace over the final eight games last year is not going to carry over to 2020. But a push into 280-290 carry range is well within range, with more than 40 catches again (43 in 2018).
In terms of Mixon finishing as a top-5 fantasy running back this year, as Elisha Twerski of numberFire has built a case for, I’m not quite there. But a top-10 finish is an easy prediction, along the lines of his 2018 campaign and his final nine games of 2019.
