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Writer's pictureIan Altenau

Amarius Mims Goes Down and an Old Wound Is Reopened

(Navin Rajagopalan, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)


Amarius Mims is a big man.  Like, really big.  If he were a horse, he’d be 40 hands tall (that’s 6’8” for those who aren’t big on using “hands” as a form of measurement).  He’s also listed at 340 lbs.  That’s not particularly big for a horse – racehorses can weigh over 1,000 pounds – but he’s absolutely massive for a human.



So yeah…Mims is a big man.  But now, he’s an injured man.  According to reports from yesterday, Mims suffered a pectoral injury.  Zac Taylor said Mims will be out “several” weeks.  If I just triggered your PTSD, I apologize – that’s the same phrasing Taylor used when talking about Joe Burrow’s calf strain early in last year’s training camp.


Of course, Mims and Burrow are completely different in terms of their value to the Bengals.  Having Mims around would be nice.  Having Burrow is essential.  Besides, the Bengals haven’t even ruled out Mims for Week One.  He might only miss a couple preseason games and some practice time.  That isn’t the end of the world.


What’s the big deal?  It’s not like the Bengals were planning to make Mims a starter anyway – that’s why they signed nine-year veteran Trent Brown.  Deep down, though, down in the darkest recesses of the minds of every rabid Bengals fan on the planet, something troubling has been awakened.  No, it isn’t a Balrog.  It’s the Bengals track record of drafting offensive linemen in the first round, and incredibly, that recent bit of history is even more terrifying than a twelve-foot-tall, whip-wielding fire demon.


Before Mims, the most recent offensive lineman to be drafted in the first round was Jonah Williams, who was drafted with the eleventh pick in 2019.  He took less time than Mims to hit the shelf, suffering a labrum injury in June during organized team activities.  Williams was on injured-reserve before he ever even put on pads for the Bengals.


Fortunately, it wasn’t all downhill for Williams and the Bengals.  He eventually cobbled together enough reasonable performances to hold down the left tackle job…for a while.  Once the Bengals had an opportunity to add a better player at left tackle, they didn’t waste time, snatching Orlando Brown Jr. from the Chiefs last offseason.  Williams spent last year at right tackle and then split for Arizona.  His tenure in Cincinnati was entirely forgettable – not what you’re looking for with a high first-round pick.


And yet, that’s just the beginning of the futility.  The Bengals drafted center Billy Price in the first round in 2018, only to see him suffer a foot injury in Week Two and be sidelined for the next six games.  Impossible as this may seem, Price was actually pretty decent as a rookie – decent enough to be named to the Pro Football Writers of America’s All-Rookie Team.  It was a good, but truncated, start.  Price would be playing for the New York Giants two years later and out of the NFL three years after that.


Now, we’re getting into seriously infamous territory.  Before Price, the Bengals selected left tackle Cedric Ogbuehi in the first round in 2015, a pick that set in motion a chain of events that saw the eventual departure of franchise mainstay Andrew Whitworth (which accelerated the utter collapse of the Bengals’ offensive line for many years to come) and the deletion of Marvin Lewis from the world of NFL coaching after sixteen years on Cincinnati’s sidelines.  In a word, Ogbuehi was awful.  Atrocious.  Abysmal.  Abominable.  Frankly, they don’t make enough words that start with the letter “A” to do this rant justice.


The best part of the Ogbuehi experience was then-offensive line coach Paul Alexander exclaiming proudly after the draft, “I freaking love him.”  That would also be the worst part of the Ogbuehi experience, because once the games got started, all we got was hot garbage. This pick cost Alexander his job. At least for a very brief time, we could talk ourselves into the hype, even if it was absurdly short-lived.


Next in line amongst this ineffectual group of first-round linemen is 2009 sixth-overall pick Andre Smith, and while his career is probably longer and more successful than you probably realize, there’s no question it got off to just about the worst start imaginable.


First, there was the photo.



Then, there was the holdout.  Then, he got hurt.  He suffered a fractured foot in training camp, which cost him the first nine games of the season.  Like I said, it doesn't really get worse than that.


Still, Smith played in the league for thirteen years (eight in Cincinnati), and was serviceable for most of them.  You can make a case this is a pick the Bengals actually got right.  The 2009 offensive tackle class was dreadful – just one, Packers fourth-round pick T.J. Lang, was selected to a Pro Bowl, and he only made two trips and didn’t even last in the league as long as Smith did.


But, if Smith is an example of the Bengals doing a good job in the draft, why am I suddenly having heart palpitations?  Make no mistake, Smith may have been absolutely fine as an NFL player, but fine is absolutely not what you’re looking for with the sixth pick.  Smith was a disappointment from the start, and in eight years, he didn’t do much to change that perception.


If you want to find an example of the Bengals actually getting it right, you have to go all the way back to 1996 when the Bengals selected Willie Anderson (you could also consider Levi Jones in 2002, but he too saw his career derailed by injury).  That’s almost thirty years and the Bengals haven’t identified a single offensive lineman in the first round who could make it a decade with the team.  Now, as I sit here, contemplating the Bengals' future with Mims on the injury report for the first time in his young career, less than a year removed from suffering a high-ankle sprain that limited him to just seven games during his final year at Georgia, with all the weight of being a first-round pick on his shoulders, and all the embarrassing baggage that comes with being a first-round lineman for the Bengals…


Forgive me if I'm freaking out a little. There's nothing to worry about. It's probably just a coincidence that Amarius Mims and Andre Smith share the same number…


I'm going to lie down.

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