Bengals take a chance on Mixon
In a move certain to draw criticism, the Cincinnati Bengals selected Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon in the second round of the NFL draft Friday.
He was the 48th overall selection, and the announcement was met with loud boos from the crowd in Philadelphia.
The Freedom-Oakley alum likely would have been a firstround pick if it hadn’t been for his assault on a woman in an Oklahoma restaurant 2014. He knocked her unconscious and fractured four bones in her face. He was suspended for a year by the Sooners but reinstated in 2015.
Mixon was charged with misdemeanor assault. He completed one year of probation, 100 hours of community service and behavioral counseling as part of a plea agreement to avoid jail time.
A video of the punch was released to the public in December and quickly went viral — and was shown again on ESPN shortly after he was drafted. He and the woman, Amelia Molitor, recently reached a settlement of her civil lawsuit against him.
Kevin Hartwig, his high school coach, strongly defended Mixon.
“I’m excited for him,” Hartwig said. “He’s had some crazy adversity these last few years. I don’t condone what he did . ... But he’s paid his dues, and he wants to move on. He’s a great young man. He just made a bad decision at age 17.”
Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis defended the selection of Mixon.
“We have done all our due diligence we could do, time spent, interviewing people, everybody around him, everybody around his background, people that have coached at Oklahoma with insight regarding him and how he has carried himself since that day,” Lewis said.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that only four teams considered taking Mixon. According to NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock, Mixon would have been a top-15 pick if not for the assault. “He’s pretty darn special as a football player,” Mayock said.
But questions about his character made the pick a huge risk.
“To me it speaks to the lack of commitment to addressing violence off the field,” Ohio Domestic Violence Network executive director Nancy Neylon wrote in an email to the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Of course I would want to know what kind of vetting was done on this specific issue with this player. But it does say there is little value for or sensitivity to women in general on the Bengals.”
In a conference call with Cincinnati media, Mixon said the assault case and its aftermath “changed me a lot as a person. How you think. How you carry yourself. How you go about things.” Webb to Giants: Cal quarterback Davis Webb was picked by the Giants in the third round (87th overall). After playing throughout college in a spread offense, he’ll apparently have plenty of time to learn the pro game behind 36-year-old Eli Manning.
Webb said he felt he “landed in a great spot, with a Hall of Fame quarterback in Eli Manning and a lot of great players on the roster, like (wide receivers) Odell Beckham, Brandon Marshall and Sterling Shepard. I’m going to try to be a sponge off them and learn as much as I can.”
Webb played last season at Cal as a graduate transfer from Texas Tech, passing for 4,295 yards and 37 touchdowns. Those numbers weren’t far behind the 4,719 yards and 43 TDs Jared Goff put up in 2015 before going No. 1 last year. Cornerbacks picked: Former Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland athlete Kevin King, a Washington cornerback, went to Green Bay with the first pick of the second round, and Colorado cornerback Chidobe Awuzi, a San Jose native, went to Dallas later in the round.