{"id":295620,"date":"2025-08-17T14:56:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T14:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/295620\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T14:56:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T14:56:46","slug":"nfl-news-joe-mixon-injury-absence-could-stretch-into-regular-season-for-houston-texans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/295620\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL News: Joe Mixon Injury Absence Could Stretch into Regular Season for Houston Texans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/houston-texans\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Houston Texans;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Houston Texans<\/a> came into NFL training camp hopeful that running back Joe Mixon would return at some point this summer. Just weeks out from the regular-season opener, Houston could have a problem on its hands.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.click2houston.com\/sports\/2025\/08\/15\/texans-cal-mcnair-hannah-mcnair-on-state-of-team-i-think-weve-got-a-shot-at-doing-things-we-havent-done-before\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:NBC Sports Houston;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">NBC Sports Houston<\/a>\u2018s Aaron Wilson reports that Mixon\u2019s recovery from a \u201clingering foot-ankle injury\u201d has now jeopardized his status for Week 1 against the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/los-angeles-rams\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Los Angeles Rams;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Los Angeles Rams<\/a>. Houston is still hoping he can play, but it is \u201cnot considered a lock\u201d and the team will be cautious moving forward with the recovery plan.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Joe Mixon stats (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/3116385\/joe-mixon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:ESPN;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">ESPN<\/a>): 1,016 rushing yards, 11 rushing touchdowns, 4.1 yards per carry, 52 receptions, 309 receiving yards and 1 receiving touchdown in 14 games last season<\/p>\n<p>Mixon, entering his age-29 season, proved crucial for the Texans\u2019 backfield last season. He accounted for 56.5 percent of the team\u2019s carries and 53.2 percent of the club\u2019s rushing yards despite missing three games. Houston had enough confidence in him coming into the season that it planned to roll with Dameon Pierce as the No. 2 back until Mixon\u2019s absence lingered.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also worth noting, per Wilson, that the Texans will be careful in \u201cmanaging\u201d Mixon\u2019s recovery and the Pro Bowl running back won\u2019t be rushed back onto the field. It creates a very real possibility that he won\u2019t be active for Week 1.<\/p>\n<p>In Houston\u2019s preseason opener against the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/minnesota-vikings\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Minnesota Vikings;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Minnesota Vikings<\/a>, Pierce and fellow backup running back Nick Chubb didn\u2019t play. Texans offensive coordinator Nick Caley recently praised Pierce as a \u201cphysical, violent runner,\u201d and he has outperformed Chubb during training camp.<\/p>\n<p>Pierce currently seems like the favorite to be the Texans\u2019 starting running back in Week 1 if Mixon can\u2019t play. During Saturday\u2019s preseason game against the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/carolina-panthers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Carolina Panthers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Carolina Panthers<\/a>, Pierce didn\u2019t play. Chubb received six touches, finishing with 29 scrimmage yards and averaging five yards per carry.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Houston Texans came into NFL training camp hopeful that running back Joe Mixon would return at some&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[3258,260,11317,7,221,253,2368,3608,58,259,6,10154,587,3866,6746,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-295620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-aaron-wilson","9":"tag-carolina-panthers","10":"tag-dameon-pierce","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-houston","13":"tag-houston-texans","14":"tag-houstontexans","15":"tag-joe-mixon","16":"tag-los-angeles-rams","17":"tag-minnesota-vikings","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-nfl-training-camp","20":"tag-nick-chubb","21":"tag-receiving-yards","22":"tag-rushing-yards","23":"tag-texans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115044692471526374","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}