Texans' Joe Mixon faces uncertain future after missing season with foot injury

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Texans' Joe Mixon faces uncertain future after missing season with foot injury

2026-01-22 01:46 Last Updated At：01:50

HOUSTON (AP) — Joe Mixon’s status for next season remains uncertain after the Houston Texans running back missed all season with what general manager Nick Caserio called a “freak” foot injury Wednesday.

“We haven’t seen Joe in a little bit, so I think at some point we’ll see him and then we’ll be able to evaluate kind of where he is and then based on information, we’ll see where his status is,” Caserio said.

The Texans provided few details on the 29-year-old Mixon’s recovery throughout the season after announcing in training camp that he sustained a foot injury away from the facility in the offseason.

Asked for details about his injury Wednesday, Caserio gave a bit more information but still didn’t specify exactly what the injury was.

“It wasn’t like he was riding a snowmobile or anything like that,” Caserio said. “It was more of a medical condition or situation that never… really didn’t improve maybe as much as everybody would have hoped. I’m not trying to evade the question, that’s the reality of the situation. He didn’t jump off a building. He wasn’t cliff diving or anything. He wasn’t doing anything irresponsible. It was just a freak thing.”

The Texans reached the divisional round of the playoffs for a third straight season, but their offense took a major hit with Mixon out all season with the injury. It came after he ran for 1,016 yards and 11 touchdowns in his first season with the team in 2024. He has one year remaining on a three-year, $27 million contract extension he signed after joining the Texans following seven years with the Bengals.

Caserio said they weren’t sure of his status throughout the season but held out hope that he could return at some point.

“It was a very unique situation,” he said. “I don’t think anybody really had any clarity, honestly, from the start of the year until now. I’d say Joe worked very, very hard to try to get himself ready to play football, it just never manifested itself, came to fruition. So probably have an opportunity to kind of see where he is in the offseason relative to next year.”

With Mixon out this season, the Texans relied on rookie Woody Marks and Nick Chubb. Marks, a fourth-round pick, led the team with 703 yards rushing and Chubb added 506 yards. The Texans struggled to run the ball in their loss to New England last week, managing just 48 yards rushing.

When asked specifically if they believe Mixon's condition will improve enough for him to be ready for the start of training camp, Caserio said it's too soon to tell.

“We’ll see. Believe me, I’m not smart enough to be a doctor so I'm going to leave that up to the medical experts,” he said. “Once we... get a little bit more clarity, more information, we’ll kind of see where we are.”

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US military transfers the first 150 Islamic State group detainees from Syria to Iraq

AL-HOL, Syria (AP) — The U.S. military said Wednesday it began transferring detainees from the Islamic State group who were held in northeastern Syria to secure facilities in Iraq.

The move came after Syrian government forces took control of a sprawling camp housing thousands of mostly women and children of IS militants from the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which withdrew as part of a ceasefire. Troops on Monday seized a prison in the northeastern town of Shaddadeh, where some IS detainees escaped and many were recaptured, state media reported.

The Kurdish-led SDF still controls more than a dozen detention facilities with some 9,000 IS members.

U.S. Central Command said the transfer began on Wednesday and so far 150 IS members have been taken from Syria’s northeastern province of Hassakeh to “secure locations” in Iraq. The statement said that up to to 7,000 detainees could be transferred to Iraqi-controlled facilities.

“Facilitating the orderly and secure transfer of ISIS detainees is critical to preventing a breakout that would pose a direct threat to the United States and regional security,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander. He said the transfer was in coordination with regional partners, including the Iraqi government.

U.S. troops and their partner forces detained more than 300 IS operatives in Syria and killed over 20 last year, the U.S. military said. An ambush last month by IS militants killed two U.S. soldiers and one American civilian interpreter in Syria.

The IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017, and in Syria two years later, but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries. The SDF played a major role in defeating the IS.

Tom Barrack, the U.S. envoy to Syria, said in a statement Tuesday that the SDF’s role as the primary anti-IS force “has largely expired, as Damascus is now both willing and positioned to take over security responsibilities.”

He added that the “recent developments show the U.S. actively facilitating this transition, rather than prolonging a separate SDF role.”

Syria's Foreign Ministry welcomed the transfer of detainees, calling it “an important step to strengthen security and stability.”

Earlier Wednesday, a convoy of armored vehicles with government forces moved into the al-Hol camp following two weeks of clashes with the SDF, which appeared closer to merging into the Syrian military, in accordance with government demands.

At its peak in 2019, some 73,000 people were living at al-Hol. Their number has since declined with some countries repatriating their citizens.

The camp is still home to some 24,000, most of them women and children. They include about 14,500 Syrians and nearly 3,000 Iraqis. Some 6,500 others, many of them loyal IS supporters who came from around the world to join the extremist group, are separately held in a highly secured section of the camp.

An Associated Press journalist visited the camp Wednesday as scores of soldiers guarded the main entrance.

“Go inside and see the chaos that is happening. There are no clinics, no running water, no bread and no vegetables,” an Iraqi woman living in the camp said, after SDF fighters left the area. The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, called on the Iraqi government to repatriate her.

Another Iraqi woman, who also refused to give her full name out of fear of reprisal, told The Associated Press that her brother and uncle were held in jails in northeast Syria and called on authorities to release them so that she can all return home.

The Syrian government and the SDF announced a new four-day truce on late Tuesday, after a previous ceasefire broke down.

Northeast Syria was relatively calm on Wednesday. A drone attack killed seven soldiers and wounded 20 while they were inspecting a weapons depot abandoned by SDF fighters in the northeastern town of Yaaroubiyeh, the Defense Ministry said, blaming the Kurdish forces. The SDF in a statement denied it, saying the blast was triggered by soldiers moving the ammunition.

The SDF and the government traded blame over the escape Monday of IS members from the Shaddedeh prison on the border with Iraq. Under a deal announced Sunday, government forces were to take over the control of the prisons but the transfer did not go smoothly.

The largest detention facility, Gweiran Prison, now called Panorama, has held about 4,500 IS-linked detainees and still was in the SDF hands.

Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Hassan Abdul-Ghani said in televised comments Tuesday night that the government “was and still is in direct confrontation” with the IS. He added that authorities are ready to take over prisons with IS members.

Mroue reported from Beirut.