Throughout the summer leading up to the regular season, we will go through the entire 2024 Cincinnati Bengals roster. Every single day until the season opener against the New England Patriots , we will break down a player on the roster including his background, contract status, and path towards making the team.
Today, we go over why the Bengals took a chance on Amarius Mims. Four offensive tackles were selected ahead of him in this year's draft, but the Bengals believe Mims can be a great player at a position that's been in need of one for a long time. He's already had a busy first offseason in Cincinnati, but will he see the field to start the regular season?
Amarius Mims
- Age: 21
- Year: 1st
- Position: Offensive tackle
- College: Georgia
- Previous Teams: None
- Jersey Number: 71
Mims was drafted by the Bengals with the 18th overall pick in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. He spent three years at Georgia and spent his freshman year in 2021 coming off the bench for nine games. With future draft pick Warren McClendon Jr. established as the starting right tackle, Mims dipped his toes into the transfer portal for 10 days before recommitting himself to Georgia. Mims had a similar role in 2022, playing late in games the Bulldogs were winning while still gaining valuable reps in practice. He finally got the nod to start in the College Football Playoff against both Ohio State and TCU. His first start against the Buckeyes was as perfect of a game you'll ever see from an offensive tackle.
After biding his time for two years, Mims earned the starting right tackle job to start the 2023 season. He got through two non-conference games and 23 snaps in the SEC opener against South Carolina clean. The 24th snap saw him go down with an ankle injury that caused him to miss the next six games. He returned to play three games (two starts) leading up to the SEC Championship, but exited that game after 11 snaps when his ankle got him again. The next time we saw Mims was at the NFL Scouting Combine, which is where he pulled his hamstring while running the 40-yard dash in just 5.07 seconds.
Whether he was behind the starters on the depth chart, or a victim of bad injury luck, Mims left college having played just 803 offensive snaps. His lack of playing time and recent injury concerns overshadowed how clean his tape was when he actually played for the top program in college football. This saw him fall out of the top half of the first round, but the Bengals prioritized the natural ability at his freakish size of 6-8, 350 pounds and absorbed the risk when selecting him with the 18th pick.
From OTAs all the way to the first preseason game, Mims took reps as the Bengals' starting right tackle with Trent Brown absent for personal and injury reasons. He had built up tremendous moment to become the Week 1 starter until suffering a strained pectoral injury in his debut. Head coach Zac Taylor said Mims would be out for " several weeks " exactly one week ago, but clarified that playing and starting in Week 1 was not off the table.
Contract details
Mims signed a four-year, $15,371,558 deal earlier this offseason that will pay him the minimum rookie salary of $795,000 (fully guaranteed) for the 2024 season.
When adding on the $7,999,316 signing bonus that will be prorated throughout the entirety of his deal, Mims' cap hit for the season will be $2,794,829.
Roster outlook
Mims hasn't been able to escape the injury bug over the last 11 months, and until he proves he can stay healthy, that will remain *the* talking point about him. Fortunately, there's confidence in Mims being healthy to start the season, so all of his hard work from training camp won't be in vain.
Until Mims returns to the practice field, the edge most likely belongs to either Cody Ford or Brown to begin the season as the starting right tackle. Brown himself is dealing with back tightness and missed half of last Thursday's practice.
Projected role: Swing tackle, potential midseason starting right tackle
Previous player breakdowns
Related: Bengals Roster Breakdown: Cody Ford regained his footing as valuable depth piece in Cincinnati
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