4 winners and 5 losers from Bengals’ first-round selection of Georgia OT Amarius Mims

Hey, we’ve officially made it to the NFL Draft. That means we’re all kinda winners right now!

Well, look at you, you made it!

After all those nights scrolling through Cincinnati Bengals mock drafts or creating thousands of your own using one of the many AI engines, you got here. The time for talk is over, and the time for action has come.

No more mock drafts, conjectures, discussions, debates, or endless speculation.

So in a way, we’re all kinda winners right now.

But make no mistakes; there are those in Queen City who are on the losing end tonight as well.

The NFL Draft has officially begun, and round one will soon be in the books. The Cincinnati Bengals, using the No. 18 overall pick, decided to select Georgia Bulldogs offensive tackle and massive human being Amarius Mims.

Here are some winners and losers from the team’s 2024 first-round pick.

WINNERS

1. Joe Burrow: It’s clear the Bengals’ head was around protecting their quarterback and face of the franchise, Joe Burrow. The Bengals brought in Trent Brown, another massive human being, in free agency to play opposite Orlando Brown Jr., another massive human being (seeing a trend here?). Burrow has had trouble staying healthy in his young career, and it’s clear they want to make sure he’s protected.
2. Frank Pollack: The Bengals offensive line coach has just been handed a blank slate. One of the knocks on Mims is his relative lack of inexperience while at Georgia. He only started eight games in and hasn’t developed any of the nasty habits that will be tough to break. Pollack gets to take Mims’ freak athleticism for his size and mold him into something terrifying.
3. Cordell Volson: Mims is the selection, and there’s no question he’s built to play offensive tackle in the NFL. However, Troy Fautanu was available as well, and he’s a much more versatile prospect, one that many believe can play all five offensive line positions, including left guard. If the Bengals didn’t like the idea of Volson starting at left guard this season, Fautanu could have been the pick.
4. Bengals running backs in short-yardage situations: Imagine lining up behind Trent Brown and Mims as an extra tackle in a short-yardage situation. I could run behind those guys, and I’m very, very slow.

LOSERS

1. Jackson Carman: Carman has been hanging on by a thread in Cincinnati for a couple of seasons. He was selected in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft out of Clemson, but he was never really able to get things figured out at the NFL level, despite taking snaps at guard and tackle. Mims’ selection could be coffin nails for Carman.
2. D’Ante Smith: See Jackson Carman.
3. The Bengals if history repeats itself: If recent history tells us anything, it’s that the Bengals have struggled to assess the quality of some of the offensive tackles taken early in the draft and have hauled in some stinkers. Hopefully, a season to learn the ins and outs of the position behind Brown County will allow Mims to develop into a solid NFL offensive tackle. But if history repeats itself……
4. The CB room: The Bengals took an offensive tackle at 18, which means they ignored other needs. Byron Murphy was taken off the board by the Seahawks a couple of picks earlier, but Terrion Arnold, Cooper DeJean, and Quinyon Mitchell, three of the top cornerbacks, were still on the board. Hopefully the Bengals don’t end up regretting that decision.
5. Lou Anarumo: Look, defense clearly doesn’t have as much value as it used to, as evidenced by a defensive player not hearing his name called until the 15th(!) overall pick. But when you have as big of a weakness up the middle as the Bengals’ current predicament, it’s going to be hard to win a lot of games with the Ravens, Browns, and Steelers. The Bengals don’t have that right now after watching Byron Murphy go two picks before Cincinnati was on the clock. This is going to be a major concern until we see otherwise, and Lou Anarumo has to feel like this picture right now.

Who was your biggest winner tonight? Who’s the biggest loser? Let us know in the comments section!