As we’ve done in previous years, we’re taking a look at those Pittsburgh Steelers under futures contracts for the 2024 offseason. The ones who spent most if not the entire year on the practice squad and what we can expect from them during training camp and (hopefully) into the regular season. Today, an outlook on WR Denzel Mims.
DENZEL MIMS/WR BAYLOR – 6027, 207 pounds
I’ll be the first to admit my wrongness about Denzel Mims. Coming out of the draft, I was among his biggest fans. Big. Springy. Athletic down the field. The lesson learned from guys like him and those with a similar makeup, Laquon Treadwell, N’Keal Harry, and others, is being big and possessing straight-line speed isn’t enough to win in the NFL. The name of the game on Sundays is creating separation. And Mims hasn’t shown he can be that guy.
But there was a time where he dominated college football. In 2017, he averaged nearly 18 yards on 61 grabs. And for three straight years, 2017 through 2019, he found the end zone at least eight times, including 12 occasions in his final year. An end-zone machine, he scored on every 6.6 receptions. And he wasn’t exactly catching passes from Robert Griffin, either.
It made Mims an intriguing name heading into the 2020 NFL Draft. His Combine workout turned even more heads. A blazing 4.38 40 time, a 38.5-inch vertical, 10’11” broad jump, and 6.66 three cone. Video game numbers. His Relative Athletic Score was a 9.75, an excellent number, though his workout posed one underlying problem. Agility and change of direction. The only blemish on his scorecard was his 4.43 short shuttle, a really poor figure. And an ominous sign for his NFL future.
Still, Mims went in the middle of the second round, 59th overall to the New York Jets. He saw some work as a rookie, catching 23 passes for a healthy 15.5 per-catch average. But the team quickly found other options and reduced his role. In 2021, he caught just eight passes and by 2022, his snap count continued to drop. Without special teams value, it was hard for Mims to consistently see the field and he dressed in only 10 games during that ’22 season.
For what felt like a year, there were rumors and speculation the Jets would trade Mims. Or at least release him. In August 2022, Mims’ camp requested a trade. But the Jets declined to move him throughout the year as he toiled away in street clothes half the time.
Finally, the Jets moved him in July 2023, shipping him to the Detroit Lions for a conditional 2025 selection. Mims went through part of camp before being waived/injured after suffering ankle and calf injuries with the Lions. One week later, he took an injury settlement. Mims was without a home for the first month of the NFL season until the Steelers scooped him up in early October. In a way, it was a reunion. Mims was back with his college wide receivers coach Frisman Jackson, who helped bring the best out of him late in his college career.
Signed to the practice squad, Mims would get no closer to the field. After Diontae Johnson got past his early-year hamstring injury, the Steelers’ wide receiver room stayed healthy and Mims had no chance for upward movement. He signed his Reserve/Futures deal with the Steelers days after the team’s Wild Card loss.
Mims is back. Jackson isn’t, the team parting ways with him after two years as the team’s receivers coach and replacing him with Zach Azzanni. Those two do have a tiny bit of time together, both with the Jets from February to July before Mims was traded, which doesn’t hurt. But I’m not sure how much it helps, either. Mims’ problems have been two-fold. A lack of special teams value, he’s not a Miles Boykin, and a lack of separation. He’s a linear player, a straight-line runner. That worked on Saturdays when he was bigger and faster and stronger than everyone else. It doesn’t translate to the next level.
Mims could make plays in the summer and the Steelers lack great depth at wide receiver. But he’ll have to do something different than he’s been doing in order to see playing time again.
