Bengals Booth Podcast: We Did It Big

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Hagen, everybody. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks for downloading the Bengals Booth podcast. The We Did It Big, Yeah, we did it, we did it big, yeah. Addition, as the Bengals go with a big man with their first pick in the 2024 draft.

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With the 18th pick in the 2024 NFL draft. The Cincinnati Bengals select Amarius Mims. Tackled, Georgia. That is one large bulldog making his way to Cincinnati. So you see the

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size up there, 6-7, 340 pounds. He is massive. Coming up, you'll hear from Zach Taylor and offensive coordinator Dan pitcher, and you'll also hear what Amarius Mims had to say after being selected by Cincinnati. Then I'll discuss the pick with Dave Lapham and look ahead to what we think the Bengals are likely to do on day two.The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by Pay Corps, proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider. By Alta Fiber, Future Proof Fiber Internet, proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider. By Alta Fiber, Future Proof Fiber Internet, designed to elevate your home, business, and community to a new level. And by Kettering Health, the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is the official health care provider of the Bengals. Now, here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered, right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts.It's the greatest thing since. Bill Tobin The father of Bengals, Director of Player Personnel, Duke Tobin, passed away last week at the age of 83. Duke followed in his father's footsteps as Bill Tobin was one of the great scouts and front office executives in NFL history, best known for the role he played in building the 1985 Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears, a team that featured six Hall of Famers, includingWalter Payton and Mike Singletary. Bill joined Duke on the Bengals staff in 2003 and has been a trusted voice in the organization ever since. On a personal note, one of the many great things about my job has been sitting in the team cafeteria listening to Bill Tobin and Dave Lapham swap stories about their lives in football. The Bengals and the NFL mourn the loss of a great man in Bill Tobin. Now, let's get to round one of the draft. With six quarterbacks being selected in the top 12 picks,the Bengals had an abundance of enticing choices with the 18th overall pick. The top cornerbacks were still on the board. Defensive tackle Johnny Newton was still there, but the Bengals selection likely came down to two offensive linemen. Top cornerbacks were still on the board. Defensive tackle Johnny Newton was still there, but the Bengal selection likely came down to two offensive linemen, Troy Fautano of Washington and Amarius Mims of Georgia. They chose the one with the highest ceiling. MIMS. He's four inches taller and about 20 pounds heavier than Fautano, who many draft gurus project as a guard in the NFL.Mims is also two years younger. The knock on Amarius is his lack of experience. He had an ankle injury this year and only started eight games in three seasons with the Bulldogs. Here's offensive coordinator, Dan Pitcher.

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I think we're all of 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 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.

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Mims is a perfect fit on the Bengals' offensive line literally and figuratively. He's nearly 6'8 and weighs 340 pounds, meaning he's roughly the same size as the tackle tandem of Orlando Brown and Trent Brown. Here's Zach Taylor.

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You know, it's those guys that have similar measurables and have gone through a lot of seasons, one Super Bowl's the both of them. So I do, it's coincidence and we didn't set out to do this, but the way it's played out is, that makes us look brilliant.

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But Mims is remarkably athletic for his size and didn't allow a single sack at Georgia. Here's pitcher.

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He's 340, but he doesn't look like he's 340, so he moves a lot better than what you'd expect a player that weight to move, and so he stays in really good position. He's seemingly unaffected by speed and bowl, and he just, he plays under control, he's comfortable. It's all the things that you want to see out of a guy that size to project to being a high-end pass protector in the NFL. Since Trent Brown signed a one-year contract to

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start at right tackle, there's no pressure on MIMS to start right away. He told Cincinnati reporters that he's looking forward to learning from his veteran teammates.

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100% I can get behind those guys and learn from them much as Orlando and tread as much as possible. It's just wild bad and just watching both of those guys in college and not in the league and just, you know, getting to be in the same room as them, man.

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It's just a blessing, man. Mims watched the draft in Atlanta with his family and former teammates and coaches.

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All my family, my past teammates, past coaches. Like I said, close family members and friends were here today. And like I said, me actually past teammates, past coaches. Like I said, close family members and friends were here today. And like I said, that me actually just, man, all I can do is cry. Just because, like, as a kid, I dream to be in a situation, honestly, you know. And I'm saying, there's a lot of picks in this right. There's a lot of picks in the driving, man, for me to be at pick 18 years wild, man.

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The Bengals Booth podcast is brought to you by Paycor, proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider. By Alta Fiber, future-proof fiber internet designed to elevate your home, business and community to a new level. And by Kettering Health, the best care for the best fans. Kettering Health is the official health care provider of the Bengals.Now, time for analysis of round one and a look ahead to Friday's second and third rounds with Dave Lapham. Lap, you're hoping for J.C. Latham and Talisa Fuwaga. Unfortunately, they were taken before the Bengals were on the clock at number 18, but I don't get the sense from you that you are disappointed with a selection of Amarius Mims, 6-7, 340 pounds, 36-and-an-eighth-inch arms. The man is a freak of nature.Absolutely.

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And when we did our podcast, he was the guy that we were talking about. I mean, just sheer measurables are extraordinary. I mean, his hand size from his pinky to his thumb, tip of each, 11 and a quarter. Almost a ruler that he's palming there. Wingspan, 86 and 3 quarters. 7 feet 2 inches plus. I mean, he is big. Everywhere you want a guy to be big and athletic. The thing is he's not as stiff. He can move.Eight starts, limited number of snaps. But all I can say is the last player that Bengals drafted in the offensive line that had limited starts and was extremely athletic was Anthony Munoz. And that sure worked out okay. And I can remember vividly talking to fourth grade.And he said when he went out and worked Anthony Munoz out, Anthony Munoz put him on his butt. And when he put his hand out to pull Forrest Greg up, he said he engulfed my hand. He was up by my wrist and forearm. So, you know, you're talking measurables and athleticism. That's what this kid is. You know, obviously the best ability, the best ability is availability and you struggle with that, you know, somewhat. best ability is availability, and you struggle with that, you know, somewhat.But obviously so did Anthony. It certainly didn't curtail a career that, in my mind, is the best any offensive lineman has ever had. And if MIMS can just get to whatever level of that, the Cincinnati Bengals would be very, very pleased. I wonder what Mike Brown was thinking. I mean, he was involved in both of those selections. I wonder if Mike Brown talked about, you know,brought up Anthony and the parallels between them and the process of the evaluation and all that sort of thing.

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This is an upside pick. He's not needed right away. They signed Trent Brown to a one-year contract to playwright tackle. You take a big swing here for Amarius Mims, hoping he can be the type of guy that you only can land with a first-round draft pick.

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Exactly. I mean, the floor is the tape, and there's not a whole lot of tape. The ceiling is character, and it seems that he's got a lot of that, not just football character, but overall character. The thing that's going to be great, though, with him is he comes in here with two massive human beings, the Browns at the manning the two tackle positions, 6-8, 300 and whatever plus, you know, big, strong hands, long arms, just like him. It's like, okay, we're bringing you in, and you're going to learn from guys that have very similar body type to you, and they've learned how to use that body to win in theNational Football League, not just individually against their opponent, but win Super Bowls. I mean, they're both Super Bowl champions. So I think that he is in an unbelievable place in his career to learn from two two outstanding football players and high character guys as well. I think that he couldn't really ask for a better situation.I mean, he was all excited about being coached by Frank Pollock, too. I think he and Frank Pollock kidded off big time, you know, when they came here and met each other and got on the board and talked football and all that. So, you know, and the other thing is, I mean, he played at Georgia. He is. He's coming from a winning culture.He's working with offensive linemen that, you know, four projected starters are Super Bowl winners. I mean, it's a, there's a lot of pluses there. He went against the guys he played against when he did have his eight starts with quality players. He practiced against quality players every single, every single practice snap that he took down there at Georgia. They recruit the best players, you know, on the planet at the college football level. So it's not like, you know, this is, he's, he's just inexperienced,you know, in terms of number of snaps. But he's not raw. He's proven he can do it. It just needs to do it at a more, more volume basis. We mentioned the size, 6, 7, 340. The thing that

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people keep bringing up is that he's got a low body fat percentage. Normally when you see 340 pound offensive lineman, when they take the shirt off, there's, you know, there's a little bit jiggling there. 17% body fat for a guy his size is indeed

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highly unusual. Genetic freakazoid. I mean, genetic marvel. He is, he's put together. He's put together in the right places. You know, I think if you were to go into a laboratory and concoct, you know, I'm going to put in raw materials here in this formulation to create the epitome of a body type for an offensivetackle, Marius Mims would come spitting out of there. I mean, he's that type of guy. But, you know, the thing is, I've seen guys that look like Tarzan play like Jane, and I've seen guys that look like, you know, the guy getting off the, collecting your rubbers off the truck to pick up your trash,who goes out there and kicks butt and takes names. So it's not just, you know, it's not a beauty pageant. It's not a body beautiful thing. But the fact is, he can play. He can play. He's athletic.He's not as stiff. Sometimes you see these big, you know, big Herkulean type guy. Stiff as a board. This guy's fluid, athletic. Again, big in the right places. And he is, I think with the upside potential,he has that's probably limitless at this point. I mean, if I'm Frank Pollock, I'm sitting there and I've got an enormous amount of clay. And I'm going to construct a work of art because this guy has all the raw materials to put together a work of art and i think frank paulick's going to be excited to get everything you can out of this guy a 340 pound

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block of clay that is something to work with in this era of the extra year due to covid and the

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transfer portal nil etc there are a lot of older players in this draft. He's 21 years old. He had a 3.6 GPA. Sounds like he's a smart kid. Came off well in his conference call with Cincinnati area reporters. So a lot of those things you're looking for in somebody that you can develop into being a Pro Bowl type player are there.Not only younger, but nowhere and tear. So, again, you have a guy that's coming in here with a floor, but his ceiling is, I don't know how many stories up there. It's incredibly high.And, you know, again, it's almost like I'm thinking about Anthony Winoes. I mean, Anthony came there's not a better human being walking the planet than Anthony Munoz. I mean, high character guy, intelligent guy. This kid seems to have some of those traits as well.So I don't want to, you know, okay, I'm not going to say, if he doesn't play like Anthony Munoz, this guy's a bust. I'm not saying that whatsoever. What I am saying is the league was scoffing at the Bengals for taking Anthony Women's. He was off most teams board. And the Bengals take him top five pick.And the rest of the league guffawing about it. And now, you know, they're all like, oh, man, that's the greatest. What a brilliant pick. What a brilliant move the Cincinnati Bengals made. It was gutsy. And it was, it certainly got a lot of criticism when they did it.But then as soon as Anthony Muñoz paned out, oh man, that was the greatest move anybody ever made as a franchise. And hopefully that's the situation with MIMS.

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Troy Fautanu from Washington, went a few picks later to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Why do you think the Bengals went MIMS over Fautano?

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I think because, you know, looking at the body and looking at the upside potential, I mean, again, I don't want to bring anything back to Anthony Munoz, but it's like he's off the board in a lot of teams and there were other tackles out there, but as it turned out, couldn't hold a candidate to Anthony Munoz and the Bengals won. I think they were thinking that this guy may pan out to be the best tackle in the draft in this year's draft when all of said and done.And who knows? You know, three years, five years, seven years, ten years down the road, that's when you, you know, evaluate that sort of thing. But I think a lot of times you're taking players based on upside potential and environment that they're going to. And George is a great environment. There's no question about that. But I think, you know, he feels likeand the Bengals feel like he's coming into a good situation with the offensive lineman that we already talked about and that he's going to be a part of. And you talk about the biggest offensive line in captivity. My gosh, man, they should charge an admission fee to watch these guys walk out of the locker room to go to the practice field or to get on the bus and off the bus and on the plane and off the plane. I mean, it's crazy.But I do think, honestly, if I were him, when I'd sit back and think about it after the fact, man, I really had a great visit, really like the offensive line coach. I think he's going to be able to develop me. And that's the key is Anthony Munoz had Jim McNally. You know, hopefully Frank Pollock has the same influence on this young man that Jim McNally had on Anthony Munoz. And Anthony Munoz will tell you that he was the luckiest guy in the world.He had a great offensive line coach at USC. Mims had a great offensive line coach at Georgia. We've already talked about the fact that they didn't take as many snaps in colleges that they had hoped. They come to the NFL and they develop more by really good offensive line coaches at the NFL level. I mean, there's so many parallels there. I think that's probably the biggest reason that, you know, the Frank and the Bengals went in that direction.

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Six quarterbacks went in the first 12 picks. As a result, the top cornerback was still on the board. When the Bengals were on the clock, Johnny Newton was still on the board, great edge rushers were still on the board. Do you rushers were still on the board. Do you think that they were briefly reconsidering whether they wanted to stick with the offensive linemen or were they just celebrating the fact that MIMS was still there? Yeah, I mean, it sounded like

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they were high-fiving, you know, the fact that the fact that Mims was still there. It didn't, in the conversations that, you know, that Zach Taylor and and and Dan pitcher had with the media after the pick it didn't sound like there was much of a hesitation nothing deterred them from okay it's MIMS I mean he's the guy it sounds it sounds like he was as the offensive linemen started to come off he was the guy that that they were targeting and hoping that he would be there at 18 and they didn't have to move a muscle to do it. All right. Let's look ahead to day two.

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The Bengals have one second round pick, two third round picks. What position groups would you like to see them attack? And do you have any names that you'll be dreaming about tonight in preparation for day two?

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Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I mean, if Newton slides to the, to, you know, 18 in the second. You know, if he's there, as we're speaking, I'm not sure what's taking place in the rest of the second round, but if a guy like, a guy like that is there, I would, I would highly consider that. I would also, you know, look at obviously the, the wide receiver position. would also, you know, look at obviously the wide receiver position. And again, not knowing who's coming off the board in the first round and who might be there,you know, in the second, but Keon Coleman would be a guy. And then Baker from Central Florida, potentially in the third round, if he's still, you know, on the board. And then, you know, defensive players. There's been an offensive draft, obviously, have set a record. Didn't draft any defensive players for the longest period of time during the course of the day. But again, if Newton is there, you've got to think about him.I mean, it's there, edge rushers. Edge rushers hadn't been coming off the board before the Bengals picked at 18. So you've got to think that some of those guys might slide down a little bit. I do like this Darius Robinson from Georgia. I think you can play inside and outside. You know, Mason Smith from LSU in the third round, McKinley Jackson, potentially in the third round,at the defensive tackle position. Cornerback is going to be wide open. I mean, gosh, there's, you know, I've got a dozen of more candidates in the first two rounds. All of them aren't going to go, obviously, there'll be a candidate there at 18.I think they've got options. I think the way the draft started out, every team in the league that didn't have to worry about the quarterback position was thrilled. I mean, half the first 12 picks in the draft, it's like, man, our board is still so intact. It's unbelievable. Like the Bengals were saying, you know, I mean, they basically rated the quarterbacks on their board as, okay, who's the better football player?Is it this quarterback? And they had many other people between, you know, those quarterbacks that were drafted in the top, in the top six quarterbacks draft in the top 12 picks. So it's going to be interesting that the ripple effect that has, you know, on the second round and how far down the ripple effect goes into the third round. Zach Taylor's first, first round pick is the Bengals head coach as an offensive

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lineman Jonah Williams. Now in year six, he gets another and Amarius Mims. Can't wait to meet the

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big fella tomorrow. And it's crazy. He was drafted to be a candidate at some point in time to take the position of Jonah Williams. I mean, he played both left and right. And Mims is going to be a candidate at some point in time to take the position of Jonah Williams. I mean, he played both left and right. And Mims is going to be, you know, working at both right and left tackle position. I mean, he's athletic enough and, you know, massive enough, obviously, to do it. Yeah, it's a, it came full circle, unbelievable.More to come.

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Tomorrow night after day two of the draft, you'll hear from the selections, Bengals coaches, and once again I'll discuss the picks with Dave Lapham. That's going to do it for this episode brought to you by Paycor, proud to be the Bengals official HR software provider. By Alta Fiber, future-proof fiber internet designed to elevate your home, business and community to a new level. And by Kettering Health, the best care for the best fans, Kettering Health is the official health care providerof the Bengals. If you haven't done so already, please subscribe to this podcast. And if you have a minute, give it a rating or share a comment. That helps more Bengals fans find us. I'm Dan Horde, and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth podcast.