Expert Analysis
4/25/24
4 min read
Amarius Mims 2024 NFL Draft: Combine Results, Scouting Report for Cincinnati Bengals OT
The 2024 NFL Draft is getting close, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the class' best players with scouting reports. Each report will include strengths, weaknesses and background information.
Here's our report on Amarius Mims.
Amarius Mims' 2024 NFL Combine Results
- Height: 6-foot-8
- Weight: 340
- Arm length: 36 1/8"
- Hand size: 11 1/4"
- 40-yard dash: 5.07
- Vertical jump: 25.5"
- Broad jump: 9-3
Amarius Mims 2024 NFL Draft Scouting Report
Strengths
- Outstanding size and length for an offensive tackle; long arms and big hands with a well-proportioned, lean frame
- Came off the ball low with good leverage as a base-drive blocker in the run game, generated strength and power
- Showed strength and power to manipulate defensive ends at the POA in the run game, locked out effectively with his arms
- Easy mobility to work to second and third levels to make blocks on the move; fluid tracker with balance
- Efficient, comfortable kick slide in 45-degree and vertical pass sets; stayed low with knee bend and balance
- Shows light feet in his kick slides while staying square and using his long arms early in his pass set to control the rusher
- Powerful hands with grip strength to latch on to pass rushers and control them; combined with natural power throughout his body, allowed him to shut down speed-to-power pass rushers
- Easy lateral movement in pass protection with the range to protect and cut off the edge
- Played with excellent awareness and quick accelerated vision, recognizing and reacting to stunts and pressures
Weaknesses
- Lacks the experience to make a smooth transition to the next level early in his career due to only eight college starts
- At times in pass protection opened his hips too quickly, giving the pass rusher the edge and inside counters
- He overset on some snaps when challenged on the edge, resulting in susceptibility to getting beat underneath
- There were pass-protection snaps in which his feet looked heavy, especially re-directing vs. inside counters
- Run-game snaps as base blocker where he reached and lunged with a tendency to lean into contact and overextend
- Must learn to play to his size, strength and power more in the run game, drive through blocks to sustain
- Struggled at times with reach blocks, not getting his hips and core turned enough to seal the defensive lineman to the outside
- At times in the run game would lunge out of his stance, losing balance and body control and missing his block
NFL Transition
Mims is one of the most fascinating prospects in the 2024 NFL Draft given his outstanding, almost rare, size for an offensive tackle plus his higher-level traits profile, which includes his size and exceptional arm length, and his lack of experience. He made only eight college starts and missed most of 2023 because of an ankle injury.
It was important to go back to the Peach Bowl game vs. Ohio State in 2022 to see Mims. That game showed the kind of player Mims could develop into because he showed some outstanding reps in the run game and pass protection. Mims' overall length and mass plus his exceptionally long arms resulted in an ability to control the edge in pass protection. Pass rushers struggled to clear the arc, but there were snaps in which Mims showed slow and sluggish feet when he had to re-direct inside to deal with counters across his face.
Overall in pass protection, his size/length/plus athleticism/anchor strength profile and his ability to control the edge make him a viable projection at either tackle position at the next level although his college experience was at right tackle. Mims is an enticing combination of size, power and movement. His flashes of pass protection and run blocking with strong powerful hands and strength throughout his body along with his athletic movement will get OL coaches excited to develop him.
Mims must be coached and developed because he has some issues that need to be cleaned up. It is not likely he will be ready to start Week 1 in his rookie season, so expectations must be tempered. But if it all comes together physically, mentally and competitively, a team could have one of the better offensive tackles in the league for a long time.
>>READ MORE: Top 15 Offensive Tackle Prospects
Other Notes
Mims came to Georgia as a 5-star recruit and top-10 overall prospect nationally but only started eight games in three seasons. In 2023, Mims started six games at right tackle despite struggling with an ankle injury all season. He had tightrope surgery after suffering the injury vs. South Carolina in Week 3
