5 Bengals players who shouldn't be back next year

2. Joe Mixon

While some people might think the decision of whether to keep or cut Joe Mixon is a tough one, I sure don't. Cut the guy. Doing so will save the Bengals $7.2 million against the cap, per Paul Dehner Jr. in the article I referenced earlier.

Had Mixon put up numbers similar to what he did in 2021, this would be an entirely different conversation but that's not what we're dealing with here. The fact of the matter is that Mixon wasn't the same dominating player that he once was and running backs tend to have a short shelf life.

At 26 years old (and turning 27 in the summer), Mixon isn't a spring chicken anymore. That's concerning for a player coming off a season where he didn't play as well as he should have.

The Bengals can save money by cutting Mixon and it makes sense to do so here. The Chiefs proved that you can win with a seventh-round running back as one of your featured backs and that's a much cheaper option. Cincinnati should do the same.