Amarius Mims photo via Cincinnati Bengals on FaceBook
by Chris Ball
Loveland, Ohio – The 2024 Bengals have a clear set of goals entering the upcoming season: keep Joe Burrow upright and keep him healthy. That starts at one key position group: the offensive line. That group has come under intense scrutiny ever since the team took Burrow at the number one pick overall in the 2020 draft. The rate at which he has been sacked has been well documented. In 2021 it was a league high 51 times, and by 2023 he had been sacked the second-most times among all NFL quarterbacks since he entered the league. Burrow’s hits and his injuries are well-known factors league wide, as are the Bengals’ efforts to mitigate that damage and keep their franchise pillar on the field.
While they have done well bringing in linemen in free agency, signing the likes of Alex Cappa and Ted Karras, it has been a very different story drafting and developing in the trenches. Whether it be Jonah Williams, Cedric Ogbuehi, or (dare we say it), Billy Price, the Bengals have yet to turn their top draft picks along the line into genuine stars that can show they can protect the most important position and player on the field on a consistent basis.
Bengals fans all hope that trend is coming to a close with the pick of Georgia offensive tackle Amarius Mims. He is an absolute titan of a man, at 6 foot 8 inches and 340 pounds such that it is hard to imagine a freight train being able to get past him. Never mind that he has less than 11% body fat and ran 5.07 in the 40-yard dash, there is simply no question that the physical traits and raw skill are unquestionable when it comes to Mims.
Those traits and his potential were never in question, but there are some concerns that may prevent him from becoming the Bengals’ right tackle of the future. This issues namely come from his lack of consistent starting experience. He was able to start just eight games over three years at Georgia, and was out for six games last year with an ankle injury. While the injury itself isn’t necessarily one that is thought to impact his career long-term, any malady is magnified a hundredfold when the subject is a first round pick of the impact of a player like Mims. The lack of consistent starting and playing at Georgia means that it will be up to the Bengals staff, namely Frank Pollack, their offensive line coach, to transition Mims into the physically and mentally demanding world that is the National Football League.
The signing of Trent Brown will undoubtedly help this transition, both from mentorship and timing angles. However, Brown has his own injury issues, as do the Bengals as a team, and there is therefore a significant possibility that Amarius Mims will see significant snaps in 2024. He has all the talent in the world to step in and contribute, it is now on the Bengals and their staff to make sure he is ready to be the tackle all Bengals fans hope he could be.
As Bengals fans are learning, there simply isn’t enough money to go around when it comes to retaining players we all know and love. This was the case with D.J. Reader who signed a two-year deal with the Lions this past offseason. Reader was a leader and his run-stopping ability could not be denied. Run defense was an area where the team struggled overall last year (they were 26th in the league, allowing 126 yards per game) and losing Reader signaled that problem might only get worse in 2024 and beyond.
Enter Kris Jenkins. The Bengals selected the Michigan defensive tackle and 2023 National Champion with the 49th pick in the second round of the NFL draft. According to PFF his run-stop percentage ranks in the 99th percentile and it’s hard to imagine a better fit for the Bengals’ needs in round 2 of the draft. When he’s paired with newly-signed Sheldon Rankins, who has a 71.5 pass rush grade and a 10.2 percent pass rush win rate (all very respectable numbers), that tandem could be very dangerous in the years to come, as they complement each other extremely well.
The Bengals had significant holes to fill coming into 2024, but their first two picks appear well-positioned to address those needs and exceed expectations in the coming seasons. A smart and focused draft now could mean exceptional success during Joe Burrow’s prime years.
Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.
