»RELATED: Bengals stay true to themselves with Mixon pick
»RELATED: Social media reaction to Bengals drafting Mixon
“Obviously this is a pick that opens everybody’s eyes,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. “We’ve done such a lot of work regarding Joe Mixon throughout the entire process this year. Based on all the time, all the research, we felt that we can continue to move forward.
“Joe’s situation kind of came to a settlement in all ways this week, which also led us to feel better about the opportunity here and to move forward. We’ve done all of our due diligence we can do, time spent interviewing people, everybody around him, everybody around his background, people that have coached at Oklahoma for insight regarding him and how he has carried himself since that day.”
Mixon joins Jeremy Hill, who is in the final year of his contract, and Giovani Bernard, who is coming off ACL surgery, in the Bengals backfield.
Earlier report: The Cincinnati Bengals traded the 41st overall pick to Minnesota for the Vikings' second- and fourth-round pick.
The deal moves the Bengals back seven picks in the second round and gives the 128th overall pick in the fourth.
The last time the Bengals traded down was in 2012 when they struck a deal with New England to move down six spots from 21 to 27 while also getting the Patriots’ third-round pick (93rd overall).
New England took Chandler Jones at 21, and the Bengals took Kevin Zeitler at 27. Cincinnati parlayed the 93rd pick into Brandon Thompson.
About the Author