This was a busy week for Joe Mixon.
Just like last week was and next week will be.
The former Oklahoma running back will have visited five teams this week alone, and he’s scheduled to visit 15 — or nearly half the league — before the April 27 to 29 draft, his agent told Pro Football Talk. This process was to be expected given Mixon punched a woman hours after his 18th birthday in 2014, an act that was caught on video and released to the public last December.
Mixon has expressed regret, but he is still answering for the incident.
He was not invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in February. He’s been lowered on teams’ draft boards, if not removed entirely. Most recently, reports seem to surface daily regarding his latest team visit; the Buccaneers, Browns and Saints were among the five this week.
Amid it all, missing the combine may have benefited his client, Peter Schaffer said.
It not only allowed Mixon more time to train for his March pro day but shielded him from an environment that prohibits teams from interviewing a player longer than 15 minutes at a time. Because Mixon was absent, any team looking to sit down with him truly had to invest the time.
“No speed dating,” Schaffer said. “And really, how much can you get to know someone in 15 minutes. It forced everyone to bring him in. Everyone who has brought him in has remarked how remorseful he is about what he did when he was 18 ... and that he’s deserving of a second chance.
"(This many visits) is clearly not efficient and (consumes) a lot of time. But at the same time, it’s important to have it. It’s a blessing for any player to get considered for the draft. Along with that blessing comes hard work.”
That includes physicals.
Each team that’s hosted Mixon has elected to perform its own. So, that amounts to 15 sets of X-Rays in a matter of a few weeks — and the radiation exposure accompanying them. Radiation exposure amounts vary based on which body part is examined, and that risk often can be overstated. Still, it speaks to the thoroughness of each visit. One team offered to share its imaging results with other teams, but there have been no takers thus far, Schaffer said.
Fifteen sets of flights, physicals and hotel stays are part of the bed Mixon made for himself.
They will continue, his visit tour scheduled to conclude next week.
The Bengals, Broncos, Chargers, Packers and Raiders are among the other teams who reportedly have hosted Mixon at their facility.