Who Should I Start? Joe Mixon or J.K. Dobbins

Thursday, November 20, 12:34 PM

Houston Texans running back Joe Mixon (ankle, foot) is not expected to play this season as he deals with a foot injury from the offseason, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. Mixon will likely stay on the Physically Unable to Perform list through the end of the 2025 season, while the Texans move forward with veteran Nick Chubb and rookie Woody Marks in their backfield. Things had been trending this way for a while, as the Texans haven't been giving any real updates on Mixon for pretty much the entire season. Fantasy managers who are still stashing the 29-year-old in redraft leagues should send him to the waiver wire now. Mixon's injury dates all the way back to spring workouts. One would think he'd be ready for the start of the 2026 campaign, but there has been little information about the exact nature of his injury. Marks, a fourth-rounder in April, has slowly started to see more work and should be the backfield leader over Chubb by the end of the year.

Wednesday, November 26, 7:13 PM

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton isn't ruling out a potential return from running back J.K. Dobbins (foot) later in the year, according to Parker Gabriel of The Denver Post. Dobbins was previously ruled out for the rest of the season due to a foot injury, but if the Broncos make a deep postseason run, Dobbins might be able to return. For fantasy football purposes, managers in single-year leagues can dump Dobbins to the waiver wire if they haven't already done so, since he won't be able to help them before the end of the year. Denver will move forward with rookie second-rounder RJ Harvey as their primary backfield option with Dobbins out, but Jaleel McLaughlin and Tyler Badie will also be involved in change-of-pace roles. Harvey will have RB2 upside the rest of the way, while McLaughlin and Badie are simply bench stashes in deeper fantasy leagues.