Football Fans Are Upset to Learn Joe Mixon Is out for the 2025 Season — What Happened?

Sports fans want to know what happened after it was announced that Joe Mixon would be out for the remainder of the 2025 football season. The Houston Texans running back sustained an injury during a game with the Chicago Bears in September of 2024, and according to ESPN, there was hope that he'd return in 2025. However, the NFL announced on Nov. 20 that he was out for the season.

Fans of the running back were saddened to learn that he won't be returning as expected, and they want to know more about the injury that caused his unexpected hiatus. Joe was absent from all the offseason workouts and the training camp with the team. So, what happened?

Joe and the Houston Texans were playing against the Chicago Bears on Sept. 15, 2024, when he injured his ankle during a hip-drop tackle by T.J. Edwards, a linebacker for the Chicago Bears. The ankle injury was originally deemed not serious, per KPRC2 Houston.

"Texans veteran running back Joe Mixon's ankle injury not considered long-term or serious, per league sources," wrote sports journalist Aaron Wilson on X (formerly Twitter).

Unfortunately, Joe's ankle didn't heal as quickly as expected.

At the time of the injury, Joe called out the NFL and the referee on X for not flagging the tackle.

"The NFL and NFLPA made it a rule and an emphasis for a reason," he wrote. "Time to put your money where your mouth is. ...When I got up I asked the ref where is the flag that was a hip tackle. And his reply was no it wasn’t."

The NFL rules state that a hip-drop tackle results in 20 times the injuries compared to other types of tackles.

"We analyzed more than 20,000 tackles over the past two seasons and determined that this specific technique causes lower extremity injuries at a rate 20 times higher than other tackles, resulting in an unacceptable risk to player health and safety."

"A hip-drop tackle occurs when a defender wraps up a ball carrier and rotates or swivels his hips, unweighting himself and dropping onto ball carrier’s legs during the tackle," they wrote. "A hip-drop tackle will result in a 15-yard penalty and an automatic first-down if a player uses the following technique to bring a runner to the ground."

Fans were shocked to learn that Joe wouldn't be returning in 2025. "I’m still trying to figure out what happened to Joe Mixon? What sort of foot injury does he have? That injury occurred in the summer, and it’s December," noted one fan on X.

Joe signed a two-year extension in March of 2024 with the team after playing for the Cincinnati Bengals since 2017. The running back will remain on the Houston Texans' non-football injury list throughout the rest of the regular 2025 season.