'It's on me' — Bengals rookie Amarius Mims isn't sugarcoating his tall task ahead of first battle vs Steelers
When you're the new hire at work, sometimes you just don't want to get in the way. Do your job, don't prevent someone else from doing their's. With more experience, you'll start making a more positive impact on operations. For now, just don't be a nuisance.Cincinnati Bengals rookie right tackle Amarius Mims doesn't have your […]
When you're the new hire at work, sometimes you just don't want to get in the way. Do your job, don't prevent someone else from doing their's. With more experience, you'll start making a more positive impact on operations. For now, just don't be a nuisance.
Cincinnati Bengals rookie right tackle Amarius Mims doesn't have your kind of job. His office is the football field, and getting in the way would mean to stop Joe Burrow from doing all he can to keep the Bengals out of irrelevancy. So far, Mims has avoided that in his first seven starts. He has the second-highest Pass Blocking Efficiency score out of eight rookie starting tackles.
But these are the weeks that will determine how good he'll be in the NFL. The Pittsburgh Steelers have a ferocious pass rush that's led by the man Mims will see all game across from him: T.J. Watt.
These are games the Bengals drafted Mims for.
Amarius Mims set for first duel against T.J. Watt
The downfall of the Bengals' offensive line coincided with the arrival and Watt to the Steel Curtain in 2017 (and Myles Garrett to the Cleveland Browns for good measure). Watt has played nearly a full season's worth of games, 13, against Cincinnati in his ongoing eight-year career. He has 12 sacks, 12 tackles for loss, 20 quarterback hits, two interceptions, and seven passes defensed.
That's what a Defensive Player of the Year candidate's resume looks like, but it's all against one team over the course of seven years.
The Bengals have longed for a true counter to their most notorious menace, an athletic monster who could keep the game's best edge defenders at bay. They landed on the 6-8 and freakishly quick Mims this April after years of cycling out veteran right tackles with no long-term hope.
Mims passd the first test in October by preventing Garrett from ruining the game in Cleveland. He'll face more of Watt in their first meeting Sunday afternoon in Paycor Stadium. There's no mystery of what he'll see.
"I know how good he is," Mims told Bengals.com's Geoff Hobson this week. "I know he's one of the greatest. I'll give him his props."
Watt enters the weekend on a three-game sack streak and has 7.5 on the year to go with four forced fumbles and three passes defensed through 11 games. The frequency of his impact may be slightly down compared to past years, but the timing has been on point. Four of his sacks have come in the fourth quarter of Steelers wins. His first sack of the season essentially won Pittsburgh its season-opener against the Atlanta Falcons.
He's one of the guys you have two guys to block on the important downs. When the Bengals can't do that, Mims is the guy they've been developing to handle him on his own. He hasn't backed down from a challenge yet, and he's not starting now.
"But it's up to me this week. It's on me," Mims said. "I don't want to get out of character just because of who I'm playing."
It's more than just Mims' first game against the 30-year old Watt. This is his first game against the Steelers, period. Animosity with the Baltimore Ravens and Browns has risen in Cincinnati recently, but bad blood with the Steelers is generational. Just because things haven't been as heated in recent years doesn't erase very recent history.
"Hate. Hate. I've never played in this game before, but I've heard the talking," Mims said. "I just know there's a lot of hate behind this game. It's going to be played with a lot of emotion and passion. This is going to be a very physical game."
So many losses for Cincinnati this season have started in the trenches. There are going to be several conversations surrounding that part of the roster this offseason. Mims is playing his way towards becoming a foundational piece of the future, and a passable first impression against one of the best players to ever haunt the franchise would only make his foundation more secure.