Watch: Amarius Mims on video
ESPN published its annual ranking of the NFL’s top offensive tackles on Saturday, built from Jeremy Fowler’s survey of league executives, coaches and scouts — and Amarius Mims was nowhere on it. The Cincinnati Bengals right tackle missed not only the top 10 but the full list of 22 names that drew votes or honorable mentions.
It is the second outside assessment this month to land the same way. Warren Sharp ranked Cincinnati’s returning offensive line 28th in the league on Wednesday, citing last season’s pressure numbers — weeks after Joe Burrow called this the best line he has played behind. The gap between how the building talks about this group and how the league evaluates it keeps widening, and Mims sits at the center of that gap.
Why it matters
The evaluators have numbers to point to. Mims graded 67.6 overall at Pro Football Focus in 2025, 42nd among 89 qualifying tackles — middle of the pack for a former first-round pick entering a season Cincinnati needs him to anchor. The Bengals spent their offseason capital on the other side of the ball, headlined by the trade that sent the No. 10 pick to the Giants for Dexter Lawrence. The front office is betting that Mims and the returning line improve from within, because no reinforcements are coming.
That bet gets tested soon. Camp opens in late July, and every practice reps a line that allowed enough pressure last season to rank near the bottom of Sharp’s charts. Mims still has the physical profile that made him a first-round pick two years ago; what he has not yet shown is a full season that forces his way onto lists like ESPN’s. Burrow’s durability — and the Super Bowl expectations he set this spring — ride on whether that changes.
The fantasy read runs through the quarterback. Burrow’s health is the load-bearing wall under Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, two of the safest picks in drafts, and a line the league ranks this low adds real risk to all three. Chase Brown’s value holds up better — pressure tends to mean more checkdowns and screens — but anyone drafting Bengals should watch how this line looks in August, not how anyone talks about it in July.
