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Cincinnati Bengals Film Breakdown: How Did Amarius Mims Fare at Right Tackle?

The No. 18 overall pick made his NFL debut in Week 3.

Mike Santagata

Jul 26, 2024; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle Amarius Mims (71) run blocks during training camp practice at Kettering Health Practice Fields. Mandatory Credit: Kareem Elgazzar-Imagn Images
Jul 26, 2024; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle Amarius Mims (71) run blocks during training camp practice at Kettering Health Practice Fields. Mandatory Credit: Kareem Elgazzar-Imagn Images / Kareem Elgazzar-Imagn Images
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Bengals first round pick Amarius Mims got his first taste of regular season action on Monday night after Trent Brown went down with an unfortunate knee injury.

Mims is massive at 6-8, 340 pound lineman that also has great movement ability. He only started eight games in college, but he is not a raw player like you may expect.

Let’s get into how he played in his first NFL game:

Pass Protection

Mims' debut was a tale of two different types of blocks. In pass protection he was impressive, despite having a couple of mistakes. This is the area of his game that looked the best in college too. Despite the game getting faster at the NFL level, Mims never seems to be sped up. He doesn’t rush out of his stance, he’s extremely patient with his hand usage, and he makes one of the hardest things to do in this league look easy.

Just take a look at how patient he is with his hands on these sets:

This is how Mims prefered to set in college. He's done the same so far in the NFL. He knows that the defensive lineman is going to need to use a move to beat him, so he waits and waits until he sees that move and responds with his punch. This type of patience is rare for a rookie because those guys are usually more sped up. You can also see in these clips that he’s not oversetting the defender either. He is getting out of his stance quickly but he’s not rushing. Always on the inside half of his defender ready to run him around the back of the pocket.

Another issue that young offensive linemen will have is that they struggle to pass stunts. Mims did a good job on the two stunts that he faced. He did receive a chip from a tight end on one of them. Here's the one that he handled without help:

The processing and movement ability shine on this play. Mims is out of his stance quickly but then sees the end go to spike inside as part of an E-T stunt. Mims has to get enough of the end to make sure that the right guard Alex Cappa doesn't get blasted from the side. You can see some really nice movement ability for his size as he stops and redirects all of his momentum in one step with his right foot. He can then smoothly move to the inside by dropping his post or inside foot to kick back inside.

He gets enough of a shove on the end that Cappa is able to take over the block and then he changes direction again to pick up the tackle that is trying to loop around. At no point in this play did it feel like he was not in control of what was happening and that stems from his intelligence and movement ability.

Another area that an offensive tackle will be tested is his ability to stop power from a defensive end. Here was a good look at one of the few times that a defensive end tried to use that against Mims:

Mims is able to stop this bullrush in one hop which leaves ample room for the quarterback. Granted, there is a chip from the tight end, but the end still got four steps of a running start before making contact with Mims. The strength to absorb that contact, establish leverage, and redirect that force upward is exactly what you are looking for in an offensive tackle.

There were still a couple of plays that showed room for improvement in pass protection as well:

This rush was very nice from the defensive end as he used Mims patience against him. The end attempted a swipe move which Mims patiently avoided. He then tried to circle punch the defensive end and get him around the shoulders so he cannot get upfield.

The defensive end baited him into this position because he transitioned from the swipe into a bullrush. Mims had his hands on the outside trying to stop the end from getting upfield and wasn't in position to anchor this rush. It’s a very savvy rush from the end to string these moves together as a way to attack Mims. Mims can use this rep to get better as he should refit his hands to the inside quicker and should play lower during his punch.

This was the sack given up from Mims on the day. He oversets his target and then cannot redirect and get back in position to stop the inside move. It seems to me as if he thought that he had help in the form of his right guard on this play. Typically on a pass protection with a pulling guard, the tackle would make sure to stay inside of his defender knowing that there is quite a bit of space to his inside. This was one of the only plays that Mims overset on and it’s also the only play that an overset is absolutely catastrophic. Even if he did have the guard here, it’s still not a good play from Mims. That last kick comes in as the defensive end is already changing direction. There was no need for it and it made the recovery extremely difficult. It's reasonable to chalk part of this up to a rookie getting his first career snaps and not knowing the protection well enough but Mims still needs to be better than this.

Despite the two issues on the day, Mims had a solid day as a pass protector. There was quite a bit to like from the young tackle. It was not elite level competition from the Commanders, but Mims looked like a guy ready to contribute. The learning curve in pass protection did not seem to steep for the rookie and he held up well overall.

Run Blocking

While Mims was overall a positive player in pass protection, he is still a work in progress in the run game. The game seems to move fast for him in run blocking, unlike in pass protection. He does not appear to be fully comfortable just yet with his assignments in run blocking which limits his athleticism.

Take this long trap concept as an example:

This is a very difficult block for an offensive tackle to be fair to Mims on the play. Typically you will see this block made by the guard rather than the tackle because they are closer to the opposite defensive end. Still Mims is fine on the first couple of steps but after the third step he slows down and has to readjust his aiming point. There is nothing good that comes out of slowing down right in front of the back. Thankfully, Chase Brown does an excellent job of running through that tackle and it does appear that Mims gets a hand on the guy to help out a small amount. He is going to have to work faster when he’s asked to pull though so that he can get to the defender in a timely manner.

Here Mims gets to his guy, but it could be better. It’s a good play until he hops to slow himself down. Rather than slowing down, it would be nice if he would make contact and run through the defender. The hop gives the defender the ability to rip underneath and make his block useless. The goal here should be to get his helmet to the play side of the linebacker with his hands inside of the chest of the defender. He was in position to do that until he slowed down. He’s most likely slowing down though because he does not yet feel confident making this block.

This time you can see the power Mims possesses but he hangs onto the end for too long. Passing a stunt in the run game is difficult for a rookie but he does a good job at first. The goal here should be to give a quick shove so the end doesn’t get a full head of steam at the right guard. Mims executes this part of the play. The next step though would be to climb up to the play side linebacker.

He never climbs and instead the linebacker is free in the hole. Chase Brown once again shows off some impressive ability as he makes him miss before gaining a first down, however, this cannot be relied upon consistently. The tackle needs to get to the linebacker in this scenario so the run can go off without needing a missed tackle. Defenses will gladly trade two for one on run plays. Mims needs to make sure that they do not get the opportunity to take up two offensive linemen with one defensive end.

Overall, it seems like a similar root of the issue on each play of Mims not yet being comfortable as a run blocker. This is the area of his game that should see the most growth over the course of the season. He should get more and more comfortable with run blocking as he spends more time doing it.

There was a lot to like in Mims' debut with some room for improvement. This is about what I expected to see from him after watching him in college. He was most comfortable pass protecting at Georgia and showed some hesitation and a lack of experience run blocking. He clearly has the power and athleticism to become a solid run blocking offensive tackle but he needs to develop the technical side of things so he can play faster and with more confidence as a run blocker. Still, Bengals fans should be excited that he hit the ground running as a pass protector.

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Mike Santagata
MIKE SANTAGATA

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