Amarius Mims winning over Bengals’ locker room, making a strong case to start in Week 1

Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said he expected a competition for the starting right tackle job between rookie first-round pick Amarius Mims and veteran Trent Brown. It hasn’t been much of a competition to this point, though.

Through nine training camp practices, Mims appears to be the front-runner to win the job and is winning over the Bengals’ locker room. Mims has taken all the reps with the starting offensive line except for when he left practice on a cart early on Aug. 1 for an undisclosed reason. He returned the following day for practice.

Brown has yet to practice after starting training camp on the active/non-injured list due to “tightness” according to Taylor but was cleared to resume practice on Sunday morning. Despite being cleared, Brown didn’t participate and spent the majority of the practice on the rehab field.

So, when franchise quarterback Joe Burrow gushes over a player he’s only worked with for three months, it’s noteworthy and he did just that with Mims.

“My feeling on that guy's pretty good right now,” Burrow said of Mims. “His mindset, his athleticism, his size, his willingness to be coached, grow, and learn is all a plus. So, the sky's the limit for that guy, I'm really excited he's on our team.”

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When the Bengals selected Mims with the No. 18 overall pick in this year’s draft, the expectations were high, but the sentiment was that he wouldn’t be rushed into a starting spot with Brown on the team. The idea of Mims sitting behind a veteran like Brown for a while seemed like it could benefit the rookie in the long-term.

And while it’s still too early to name Mims the starter given the team has yet to play a preseason game, it’s certainly trending in the direction of the rookie stealing the job from the veteran based off his peformance in practice. Especially if Brown continues to be sidelined.

Burrow isn’t the only one who’s been taking notes on Mims’ approach. Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher was glowing about Mims when asked of his first impressions.

“Physically, he looks like a first-round pick in every possible way,” Pitcher told The Enquirer. “But the thing that’s been more impressive to me about him is how he carries himself. He’s a good dude, he loves football, and you can coach him. It’s not too big for him. He’s got a good blend of confidence in himself but humility knowing he’s a rookie and he’s got to learn.”

Mims’ rare size at 6-foot-8 and 340 pounds blended with his athleticism are why the expectations are so high for him. It’s not often you find an offensive lineman who can move like he does at that size. In fact, Bengals’ director of personnel Duke Tobin said his skillset is so rare he looks like a top-5 pick.

“I think he's as rare of a young player coming into the league as there can be,” Tobin said. “I look and say to myself 'we got him at 18?' That's normally what a top three or four or five pick looks like when they walk into your building.”

When Mims was drafted by the Bengals, most pundits first pointed to the obvious, his physical attributes. And then a “but” was usually to follow due to the fact Mims played only eight games at the University of Georgia last season because of an ankle injury. With such a small sample size to evaluate him it was only natural for questions to arise about his NFL projection.

And that’s why Mims winning over Burrow and the Bengals’ coaching staff in the meeting rooms is the most significant part of the current evaluation he’s undergoing. Everyone that studied Mims’ college tape knows what his physical traits allow him to do when healthy. The off-the-field part of Mims’ game is where he’s earning even more respect and it’s why he’s exceeded expectations.

“The (perceived) knock that he hasn’t played a lot of football you think, ‘OK, maybe you’re getting some immature kid who’s trying to figure it out,’ I mean, not at all,” Pitcher said. “We felt good about his character meeting with him before the draft but you don’t know until you’re spending day after day with someone. You’d have a hard time finding someone that’s not legitimately impressed with the person. I think he’s got so much room to grow and the ability is obvious.”

Taylor said the Bengals’ starters will play in the first exhibition game on Aug. 10 and it seems highly likely Mims will be starting at right tackle. It’s unclear when Brown is going to start practicing and if it will be soon enough to get his body ready to play in a game.

Preseason snaps will be incredibly valuable to Mims with contact limited in practice. And while it’s still far too early to anoint Mims the starter especially with Brown yet to practice, everything that’s coming out of the Bengals’ locker room surrounding Mims is nothing but positive. That's a great sign for Cincinnati’s long-term future at right tackle.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Amarius Mims winning over Bengals’ locker room, making a strong case to start in Week 1