Concept Coop said:
What have you seen from Mixon to give him this bump? I still love his upside, but I'm less bullish than I was to start the season. His situation proved to be much worse that I expectd, and he's yet to really outproduce Gio or Hill - granted, on higher volume.
Good question because on the surface it seems odd to bump him.
One major reason would be to look at where I had them ranked for redraft and I had Mixon last. The reason for that is the usage we saw the first few weeks of the season, before they fired the OC, was the usage I expected out of Mixon this season so long as all 3 RB's were healthy. This to me made Mixon nothing more than a high end handcuff this season. I saw the other 5 RB's as fantasy starters this season, without needing an injury(this is post-Ware injury rankings). So for me I had his situation as extremely negative entering the season.
Now it's dynasty but 2017 mattered how I ranked them prior to the season in dynasty leagues because 2017 matters. So I put Fournette and McCaffery over him in dynasty rankings because while I liked Mixons career potential more, I liked 2017 that much more for the other two and liked their career potentials enough for them to remain at 1 and 2. But now if I'm looking at them on how I'd rank them when this season is over I'm no longer that concerned about Mixon's usage. I still think Gio will put a little crimp on his receiving totals, especially if no coaching change, so I'm not expecting Bell or DJ type of passing game use, yet, but not a RBBC any longer. Meanwhile McCaffrey has disappointed me as a runner and Fournette's ankle issue worries me as well as he's spent most of the year playing a very physical style of football. Not easy predicting career longevity but again once you get past this season you got a RB in Mixon who I think is about 1.5 years younger than Fournette but with way less wear and tear and no possible persistent ankle.
Now I think a lot of your question centered on fact Mixon has not looked that impressive for most of the year. Sometimes patience backfires, I believed in Trent Richardson longer than any human should have. Sometimes it helps, I own Gurley a ton in dynasty and I never once offered him in a trade this off-season because I believed in his talent and did not want to sale low. Also RB seems like an easy position to grasp but we've seen some rookie RB's struggle past few seasons and rebound big time in year two. Melvin Gordon, Freeman, Ajayi come to mind. Even Bell for that matter but that had a lot to do with his physique change. I just felt the bad OL, scattershot usage and possibly pressure of trying to justify the Bengals faith in him was a bad mix. I recall Gruden saying in the telecast on Monday that he had never functioned out of the I formation and this was new to him, this is something I did not even take into consideration. I thought about guys like Ezzekial Elliot. His first two games last season he was not running that great, he had no patience, was playing to fast. This is what I thought watching him and he said as much after week two, he started to relax, not try to hit a homerun on every play and he took off. It only took him two games to acclimate but it's also easier to learn to be patient running behind that OL last year getting 20+ carries a agame. IMO I saw same things in Mixon early this year, no patience. I think that is borne from a lot of factors, bad OL play and limited usage that does not allow you to get into a rhythm and leads to trying to make something happen on your few chances.
So all that plus I offered up this rankings after the Cleveland game and while only one game it did show his full skill set and the reasons why I thought he was the best RB in this draft class.