Bengals did their homework and avoided the false narrative surrounding their first round pick

Inexperience doesn't always mean inability or rawness. This is the case for the Cincinnati Bengals' newest offensive tackle, Amarius Mims.

Mims played just over 800 snaps during his time at Georgia. He becomes the first offensive lineman to be a first round draft pick with under 1,000 snaps at the Division 1 level since Ryan Ramczyk of the New Orleans Saints.

Many have equated Mims' lack of exposure to lack of ability or quality of play. The Bengals saw the truth when turning on the tape, and it led to their decision with the 18th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.  

Bengals explain why Amarius Mims became the pick

By picking Mims 18th overall, the Bengals clearly thought highly of the tape Mims put out. Though four offensive linemen were selected in front of him and Cincinnati (just like we predicted), the Bengals view Mims as a value where they got him.

Had Mims' college career featured more playing time, the Bengals believe they wouldn't have been able to draft him at all.

"I think we're all the opinion that the only reason he's here for us to pick at 18 is probably because of the fact that he only has eight starts," offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said following the pick. "And had he gotten through a season, played this whole season, the way he played in the tape that we saw, there's a very low chance that we're even having an opportunity to pick him."

Inexperience due to injury was the main red flag on Mims' profile. Everything was worthy of a top pick in the draft. The stacked talent of the tackle class ended up helping the Bengals as he was pushed further down the order behind Joe Alt, JC Latham, Olu Fashanu, and Taliese Fuaga.

All four of those players put out much more tape, which made them safer prospects to draft first. If the concern is about quality instead of quantity, Mims has as good an argument against any of them.

"I mean, the bigger exposure, obviously there's more to see," Pitcher said. "But with Amarius, we just kept coming back to like, yeah, maybe it's not as many snaps, but the snaps that were there, you saw a lot of the things that you want to see. We didn't come away from those snaps thinking like, 'Man, he left these two or three boxes unchecked.'

"So, in general yeah, more is better to be able to look at, but for him specifically, we saw enough in that sample size, and we feel really good about the pick." 

An exception to the rule is what Mims will have to become. He's already a size outlier at 6-8 and 340 pounds, and his lack of experience does make him more of a projection than most at his position. 

But let one thing be known: He's already better at football than his critics believe. Pitcher and the Bengals wouldn't have drafted him otherwise.