Despite being blacklisted from the NFL Scouting Combine, former Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon continues to garner interest around the league.
After visiting with the Cincinnati Bengals and Denver Broncos, Mixon is reportedly heading out west for a pre-draft visit with the Oakland Raiders.
Joe Mixon continued his pre-draft visits Mon. with #Raiders, source said. I believe this visit isn't part of top-30 as he's from Bay area.
— Adam Caplan (@caplannfl) March 21, 2017
Oakland has recently been heavily linked to retired running back Marshawn Lynch. And Lord knows, Lynch has certainly done enough to indicate he is very interested in joining his hometown team.
However, even if Lynch did manage to get out of his deal in Seattle and joined the Raiders, he’d at best be a short-term solution.
Mixon, despite his monstrous red flag stemming from a 2014 incident in which he broke a female student’s jaw in multiple places, is seen by some as a potential game-changing running back.
With that in mind, it’s not all that surprising teams are willing to at least kick the tires on the idea of bringing Mixon aboard. By hosting him for a pre-draft visit, teams can gauge what kind of potential backlash they might receive if they draft him based on what is being written about the visits.
One thing to consider, however, as it specifically pertains to the Raiders is this: Owner Mark Davis has long been adamant that his organization wouldn’t hire anyone with a history of domestic violence.
“It’s just something we can’t tolerate,” Davis said in response to rumors the Raiders might be interested in Greg Hardy (h/t San Francisco Chronicle). “I don’t know how to fix it in society but I know we can’t have it on our team.”
While technically what Mixon did wasn’t domestic violence, it was at least a close cousin. He viciously assaulted a woman, and it was caught on tape. With that in mind, despite Oakland’s need for help at the running back position, it would be shocking if Davis did sign off on the Raiders drafting Mixon in April.