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Poor drafting is by far the biggest reason for the struggles of the Cincinnati Bengals over the last few years.
Those poor showings resulted in the Bengals revamping the scouting department and paying a serious catch-up tax this offseason, spending big in free agency and doing the Dexter Lawrence trade.
One exception to the bad run of drafts?
Amarius Mims.
The breakout offensive tackle from the 2024 draft is starting to get some love nationally, too. Bradley Locker of Pro Football Focus recently explained why Mims is on a breakout watch.
“Mims’ second season in Cincinnati was decent on the surface with a 67.6 overall PFF grade, finishing with no higher than a 66.6 mark in both pass- and run-blocking,” Locker wrote. “But Mims really hit his stride in the second half of 2025, earning an 81.0 overall grade from Weeks 12-18. In those seven weeks, Mims didn’t give up a sack and produced a 76.6 PFF run-blocking score.”
More recently, Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox put Mims on his “most promising building block” list for each NFL team.
A lot went into Mims’ breakout in 2025. The offense went more under-center with quick game for Joe Flacco, which helped. That’s hopefully something Joe Burrow’s offense will do next year. Level of opponents might have played a role too.
But there’s also Mims’ natural developmental curve. He battled some injuries while getting used to the NFL as a rookie. Year 3 should continue his upward trend on an offense that intends to make adjustments to keep evolving.
Provided Mims can remain available, which was one of the smaller concerns around his draft stock, there’s no reason to think he can’t match this sort of national hype.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals’ budding first-round breakout gets national attention
Continue reading...
Those poor showings resulted in the Bengals revamping the scouting department and paying a serious catch-up tax this offseason, spending big in free agency and doing the Dexter Lawrence trade.
One exception to the bad run of drafts?
Amarius Mims.
The breakout offensive tackle from the 2024 draft is starting to get some love nationally, too. Bradley Locker of Pro Football Focus recently explained why Mims is on a breakout watch.
“Mims’ second season in Cincinnati was decent on the surface with a 67.6 overall PFF grade, finishing with no higher than a 66.6 mark in both pass- and run-blocking,” Locker wrote. “But Mims really hit his stride in the second half of 2025, earning an 81.0 overall grade from Weeks 12-18. In those seven weeks, Mims didn’t give up a sack and produced a 76.6 PFF run-blocking score.”
More recently, Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox put Mims on his “most promising building block” list for each NFL team.
A lot went into Mims’ breakout in 2025. The offense went more under-center with quick game for Joe Flacco, which helped. That’s hopefully something Joe Burrow’s offense will do next year. Level of opponents might have played a role too.
But there’s also Mims’ natural developmental curve. He battled some injuries while getting used to the NFL as a rookie. Year 3 should continue his upward trend on an offense that intends to make adjustments to keep evolving.
Provided Mims can remain available, which was one of the smaller concerns around his draft stock, there’s no reason to think he can’t match this sort of national hype.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals’ budding first-round breakout gets national attention
Continue reading...
