CINCINNATI – If two 6’8” offensive tackles are good for the Cincinnati Bengals, then presumably three would be great.
Amarius Mims is one of the largest tackles in this year’s class, and most draft analysts, including Pro Football Networks’ Ian Cummings, have him ranked among the top six incoming players at his position.
The Bengals signed 6’8” Orlando Brown Jr. in free agency a year ago, and they agreed to a one-year deal with 6’8” Trent Brown last month.
Fortunately for the mountainous Mims, he has a high ceiling.
The downside is he’s short on tape, having started only eight games in his three-year career at Georgia.
Cincinnati Bengals Draft Preview: Get To Know Georgia OT Amarius Mims
The Basics
- Height: 6’8″
- Weight: 340 pounds
- Position: Offensive Tackle
- School: Georgia
- Current Year: Junior
- Age: 21 (Oct. 14, 2002)
- PFN Big Board Ranking: No. 22 overall, No. 5 OT
Why He’s a First-Round Talent
A two-time selection as first-team all-state in Georgia, Mims was a five-star recruit coming out of high school and the No. 8 prospect nationally.
Mims stayed home to play for the Bulldogs, but it was a rough freshman season in which he saw action in nine games with no starts for a national championship team loaded with talent.
He entered the transfer portal after the season, but he withdrew his name after 10 days and remained at Georgia, where he would play a slightly larger role in the Bulldogs repeating as national champions in 2022.
Mims played in 14 games as a sophomore, but he only started two. The following year, he started six games and missed another six due to an ankle injury.
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Despite making only eight starts, scouts have been impressed by how well he moves at his size and the body transformation the 340-pounder made in his three seasons at Georgia, significantly lowering his body fat percentage.
“The biggest area of improvement in my game is the run game, just the physicality part,” Mims said at the Combine. “Take no reps off. The run game is something you have to take pride in as an O-lineman.”
Cummings raves about the Georgia product’s room to grow in his draft profile of Mims.
“Physically, Mims has one of the highest ceilings in the 2024 NFL Draft’s OT crop. He’s a dominating specimen with high-end athleticism both in space and in short areas, and he has suffocating strength and deadly power capacity.
“As one might expect, Mims is still relatively raw, but there are a few soft skills at tackle that he already performs well. For his size, he’s already fairly natural at acquiring and maintaining leverage, getting depth on his kick, and properly aligning his base.
“Though Mims may need a larger acclimation period at the next level, his complete pallet of traits will allow him a larger margin for error as he gets started. In time, he can develop into an impact starter at either tackle spot.”
Inviting the Tough Questions
Mims knew going into the Combine that teams were going to look at his lack of playing time and have questions.
His message?
“Bring it.”
“I know I don’t have the amount of snaps and starts as many guys here (do), but I’m just as prepared and just as good as everybody else in this entire class,” he said. “It comes up, and I just say the same thing over and over again. I went to a very strong institution where they prepared me on and off the field, as a man and as a player.
“I feel like I’m ready.”
On the latest PFN #Bengals podcast, @DallasDRobinson and I use the PFN Mock Draft Simulator to run 4 mocks in real time.
One starts OT, then DT, then WR, then a trade back to explore the different paths.
Let us know which you like best in the comments:https://t.co/LZn3vcGncM— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) April 10, 2024
It wasn’t just what teams weren’t seeing that led to some hard questions. Coaches and team executives spent a lot of time picking apart the limited film they had seen of Mims.
And he loved it.
“They tried to pick me apart a little bit, which I enjoy,” he said with a big grin. “I had some hard questions, but that’s the Combine. It’s a job interview. I don’t mind answering those tough questions.”
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What type of questions?
“I’m not gonna elaborate on that. I’m going to keep that between us.”
Weighing the Weaknesses in Mims’ Game
In addition to the limited number of starts, other nicks in Mims’ profile will need to be addressed in the NFL.
Cummings touched on several in his scouting report.
- At his height, Mims naturally plays too tall into contact at times and negates his base.
- Sometimes stalls out his leg drive after initial contact, failing to sustain displacement.
- Occasionally veers past optimal angles in space and lacks elite recovery flexibility.
- Sometimes rolls his front foot onto his heel, which can impact his balance versus power.
- Is still relatively over-reliant on two-hand extensions and can hone his hand-fighting.
- Hand usage is still relatively bland and hands can be slow and imprecise on recovery.
- Can be more efficient loading and channeling knock-back power on extensions.
- Balance deteriorates the longer reps draw on, especially after initial anchor battles.
- Has a very small sample size of college tape, with just eight career starts.
- Missed time with an ankle injury in 2023 and missed snaps within games several times.
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