As a freshman at Oklahoma in 2014, Joe Mixon punched a female student in the face, leaving her bloodied and dazed.
According to KSTP’s Darren Wolfson, the “buzz” is that Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer “really likes” Mixon as a potential pick in next month’s NFL Draft.
“I did meet with him,” Zimmer said of Mixon during an interview with KFAN on Tuesday. “We just wanted to get a feel for him. Good visit. We talked about a lot of things … a lot of things in his past, how he’s going to change and so on and so forth.”
Mixon has expressed sorrow for assaulting the woman but some teams have already removed his name from consideration because of the incident, 247 Sports reports.
Still, ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. expects Mixon to go in the first or second round, adding that Green Bay and Pittsburgh would be the most likely teams to take him in the first round.
“If you don’t take him there, you probably won’t get him late in the second,” Kiper said during Wednesday’s appearance on ESPN’s Mike and Mike. “All it takes is one owner to sign off on him. No shot he drops.”
If Kiper is correct and Mixon doesn’t last past the second round, would the Vikings really burn their best pick (No. 48 overall) on the draft’s most polarizing player? The Vikings already added running back Latavius Murray in free agency, so running back isn’t even close to their biggest need.
Mixon has apologized
“There’s no way you should hit a female,” Mixon said at a press conference in December. “Even a male. At the end of the day, there’s no way you should hit a female. Period. And I reacted wrong and, like I said, I apologize to Ms. Molitor, and the people that it affected. The fans. Her family. My family. And that’s it.”
Best RB in the draft?
Former star running back Maurice Jones-Drew considers Mixon the best back in the draft. Via NFL.com, Jones-Drew wrote:
“What I know about Mixon on the football field is that he’s without a doubt the best running back in this year’s class. He’s versatile, a good route runner, accelerates through contact and has great patience. I recently spoke to a coach who attended Oklahoma’s pro day, and he told me Mixon was the best player he had seen in the last 10 years at any pro day. The 6-foot-1, 226-pound running back doesn’t have many weaknesses when it comes to football. The only concern — and it’s a significant one — is his maturity and decision-making outside of football.”
The draft is just over a month away (April 27-29). How will you react if Mixon winds up with the Vikings?
