The Athletic’s Dane Brugler is one of the most trusted and plugged-in draftniks, and he released his latest mock draft following the NFL Scouting Combine this morning. Brugler has the Steelers trading up from No. 20 to No. 16, sending Seattle the No. 84 overall selection along with No. 20 in exchange for No. 16 and No. 151, and selecting Georgia OT Amarius Mims.
“Déjà vu here with the Steelers trading up in Round 1 for a Georgia offensive tackle. (Pittsburgh moved from No. 17 to No. 14 to select Broderick Jones last year). At 6-8, 340, Mims is the most fascinating player in the draft, because of his special traits. The body of work (eight starts) might not be there, but if he had a deeper resume, a team like the Steelers wouldn’t have a shot to get him this late,” Brugler writes.
Mims has elite size and moves really well at that size. He posted a 5.07 40-yard dash time at the Combine, but he suffered an injury and wasn’t able to finish working out. As Brugler wrote, Mims’ lack of experience is one of the biggest knocks against him as he made just eight starts in his college career. The Steelers did hold a formal meeting with Mims at the Combine, and his performance in Indianapolis almost assures he’s going to be a high draft pick, with the Steelers’ original selection at No. 20 looking like the bottom of Mims’ range at this point.
In trading up to take Mims, the Steelers in this scenario would select him over Alabama CB Terrion Arnold, who went No. 17, and Oregon’s Jackson Powers-Johnson, who slid to Pittsburgh’s original slot at No. 20 and went to the Seahawks. With center being a major need for the Steelers right now, losing out on Powers-Johnson would be tough, but it would be reminiscent of last season when they traded up to take Broderick Jones and saw CB Christian Gonzalez fall to their original draft slot. Of course, selecting Joey Porter Jr. in the second round gave Steelers fans a short memory about losing out on Gonzalez.
Mims could be a boom-or-bust pick. The measurables and athleticism are there, and he was solid in his eight starts. But that’s just not a lot of experience, and it would be risky to trust Mims to come in and immediately be an impact player. I’m not sure the Steelers would trust him to start immediately, and like Jones last season, he might spend a lot of his rookie on the bench before becoming a starter. That’s fine if Mims worked out long-term, but it’s definitely one of the riskier picks the team could make in the first round.
Taking a risk on someone who could develop into an absolute freak at offensive tackle like Mims isn’t necessarily a bad thing though, and the Steelers could look to form bookends with two Georgia tackles in Jones and Mims for years to come. With the draft coming up in a little less than two months, we’ll know more about the Steelers’ interest and potential approach after we see where they visit for Pro Days and who they host for visits, but they have met with Mims and he’s clearly someone on their radar.
