Joe Mixon isn’t off the Lions’ draft board

Joe Mixon wasn’t invited to the 2017 NFL Combine due to an assault in 2014 where he punched a woman in a cafe, breaking four bones in her face, which resulted in a suspension for the entire 2015 season. Despite that, Mixon is not off the Detroit Lions’ draft board.

Lions general manager Bob Quinn said Wednesday that the team hopes to speak to Mixon about the incident and will “leave the door open” for the possibility of adding the running back.

”We’re going to leave the door open on Joe,” Quinn said. “I think it’s really disappointing that Joe’s not here. We come here to see the best college football players, so there are 330, 340 some-odd players here, and for him not being here because of those issues, personally I don’t think that’s real fair because we have a lot of investigation that we want to do on him.

“To get him in one spot for all the teams would have been great. I’m not part of the decisions about how guys are chosen, but I think it is a disappointment that a guy like him, and a few others you can put in that category, that we’re going to be chasing around in the month of March and April, and it’s really unfair to the players to be honest with you.”

A year ago, the NFL cracked down on invites to the Combine, opting to bar any players with domestic violence or sexual assault convictions. But ultimately, it’s up to teams to decide if those players ever reach the NFL.

The idea of stricter standards for the Combine seeks to punish players who have been arrested for violent offenses in the past. The months before the NFL draft serve as a running job interview for prospects. It is one less opportunity for teams to vet prospects who have committed these kind of incidents, but they can still interview players outside of the Combine and attend their pro day workouts.

Mixon may very well not be worth the risk. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, many teams already view the former Oklahoma running back as “undraftable.”

Mixon was arrested and charged for the 2014 incident, which was caught on video, but he received a deferred sentence after an Alford plea deal that maintained his innocence while recognizing the evidence against him. In addition to his 2014 incident, Mixon also had an altercation with a female parking attendant at Oklahoma in 2016 that earned him a one-game suspension.

Any team that selects Mixon will be subject to plenty of criticism. Quinn and other general managers will want to do as much homework as they can before they decide if Mixon is a player they’re willing to risk their reputation for. The 2017 NFL Combine won’t provide that opportunity.