Another day, another mock draft pairing the Pittsburgh Steelers with Georgia offensive tackle Amarius Mims.
If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a trend developing here, one that is starting to make the dot-connecting easier and easier.
After Mims was paired with the Steelers in mock drafts Tuesday from The Athletic’s Dane Brugler and ESPN’s Jordan Reid, NFL.com’s Charles Davis followed with his first-round mock draft Wednesday and unsurprisingly paired Pittsburgh with the hulking Bulldogs lineman at No. 20 overall.
That continues the buzz surrounding the Steelers and Mims.
“Yes, there is a lack of game experience (just eight starts in college), but the upside is massive,” Davis writes regarding the Mims selection for the Steelers in his mock draft. “Mims will complete an all-Georgia Bulldog set of bookend tackles with last year’s tremendous rookie, Broderick Jones. I expect Steelers brass to consider center Jackson Powers-Johnson here, too.”
The biggest knock on Mims is that he started just eight games at Georgia and played just 682 snaps in those eight games. Injuries have hindered him, especially an ankle injury that required tightrope surgery last season, but the lack of playing time can also be attributed to sitting behind some outstanding talent during his time in Athens.
While it’s easy to bring up the lack of experience, Mims’ upside is quite tantalizing, as Davis points out.
He has tremendous size at 6076, 340 pounds and 36 1/8-inch arms. His measurements are truly insane. The testing numbers (5.07 40-yard dash, 1.78 10-yard split) at the NFL Scouting Combine really opened eyes, too. The experience might be an issue, but Mims flashed quite a bit on tape and is that raw piece with a very high ceiling, one that teams might be jumping at the opportunity to land.
The Steelers could be one of them, especially with a glaring need at offensive tackle.
After dipping into the Georgia well last season to land offensive tackle Broderick Jones in a first-round trade-up, going back to the program that has generated some terrific players in recent years could be the smart move for the Steelers, reuniting Jones and Mims again, too.
Landing Mims would give the Steelers a high-ceiling right tackle to mold for the future and could allow them to plug Jones back in at left tackle, where he was drafted to play and where he truly belongs.
Seems like a win-win for everyone involved.
