Joe Mixon will be toeing a different line in the 2026 NFL season.

After completely missing the 2025 season due to a mysterious foot injury, the Texans released the running back Friday with a non-football injury designation after he requested a release Thursday.

The move saves Houston $8 million in cap space after the team recently acquired veteran Lions running back David Montgomery.

The specifics of Mixon’s injury were never disclosed despite his season-long absence.

He missed all of the Texans’ offseason workouts and training camp last year, and Houston eventually placed the 29-year-old on the non-football injury list, which forced him to sit out four games.

Whoever takes on Mixon next will have to handle the lingering injury — whatever it may be.

“He didn’t do anything off the field, it wasn’t like he was riding like a snowmobile or anything like that,” Texans general manager Nick Caserio said in January. “I’d say it was more of a medical condition or situation that we never — it really didn’t improve as much as everybody would hope.

“It was a freak thing, honestly, I’ve never seen it, the condition.”

Some initially thought Mixon would make his way back last season, yet his foot didn’t heal and the Texans were forced to rely on rookie Woody Marks and free agent signing Nick Chubb.

Marks lead the team with 703 rushing yards, and Chubb followed with 506. The Texans finished 22nd in the league in rushing yards per game (108).

Mixon, a two-time Pro Bowler, rushed for over 1,000 yards in his last two active seasons.

In 2024, his first year in Houston, he rushed for 1,016 yards and 11 touchdowns to earn his second Pro Bowl nod.

He also tallied 194 yards and two touchdowns during the Texans’ playoff run, which came to end at the hands of the Chiefs in the Divisional Round.

In 2023, he logged 1,034 yards and nine touchdowns for the Bengals.

Mixon was selected by Cincinnati in the second round (48th overall) of the 2017 Draft out of Oklahoma and stayed in the city for seven seasons.

Houston acquired him via trade in March 2024, and he signed a three-year, $27 million extension, which included $13 million guaranteed.

Mixon’s career has also included a few legal incidents. Before his time in the NFL, he was charged with misdemeanor assault after punching a woman and breaking bones in her face in July 2014, and was suspended for a season. He reached a civil settlement in 2017 before he was drafted by the Bengals.

In August 2023, after facing an aggravated menacing charge from a road rage dispute during an incident in Cincinnati, Mixon was found not guilty.

In 2025, a lawsuit, in which Mixon was named, stemming from a 2023 incident, was settled. Mixon and his sister’s then-boyfriend held real guns — with the latter using the weapon — while teenagers nearby were playing with NERF guns. A 16-year-old was struck in the foot, though Mixon did not fire any shots during the incident. Terms of the settlement were not made public.