Joe Mixon expected to play despite chest injury

2020 has told us a lot of things. Specifically in the NFL world, a sudden chest injury popping up before a game should tell us nothing but bad news (looking at you Chargers).

But for Joe Mixon’s case, things may not be too terrible.

After Mixon was placed on the injury report Saturday afternoon with a chest injury, the Bengals’ star running back is now expected to play in Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. ESPN’s Ben Baby was the first to report the news.

Being expected to play and being expected to start are two separate things. It’s entirely possible that Mixon is healthy enough to handle a regular workload as Cincinnati’s bell cow back, but perhaps Giovani Bernard is used a bit more due to Mixon’s injury. We won’t truly know until the game is well underway.

Mixon has had a rough beginning to his fourth season with the Bengals. He dealt with injuries early on in both the 2018 and 2019 seasons and eventually ended each year on a high note. We’ll see if he can kickstart the running game against the Jaguars.