To complete the rebuild of their offensive line, the Pittsburgh Steelers need to find a right tackle and a center in the upcoming 2024 NFL Draft. There is a deeper tackle class in this year’s draft, but many of the top prospects should be off the board by the end of the first round or so. For example, Daniel Jeremiah has eight tackles featured on his latest top-50 prospects list. Matters are complicated by the fact that the Steelers are specifically looking for a right tackle. GM Omar Khan told the media at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine that they drafted Broderick Jones last year to be a left tackle and that he will eventually end up back there. Two prospects who figure to be available by the time the Steelers pick at 20th overall are Georgia OT Amarius Mims and Oklahoma OT Tyler Guyton.
Both prospects suffer from a similar issue in that neither has a ton of starting college experience. Mims had eight college starts while Guyton had 14. On the latest episode of Move The Sticks with Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks, they discuss the two right tackle prospects and try to determine which player has the edge. Jeremiah has Mims (22) one spot ahead of Guyton (23) on his top-50 list.
“Mims is just massive, man. Just extra, super large. But he has the athleticism, just the raw ability that, okay—if we could just get him to go,” Brooks said. “I think Guyton is probably more ready to play today. Even though he has some stuff that he has to clean up. That system where he had a lot of reps like them throwing the ball and doing all that other stuff…I think Guyton is probably more ready to play.”
Both prospects have similar size, standing at the exact same 6076. Mims is 340 pounds while Guyton is 322, and Mims has an extra couple inches of arm length to work with.
The conundrum for the Steelers is, if they draft a right tackle, they kind of need one who can start sooner rather than later. If they draft Mims and he ends up needing to sit for half the season or more, then Jones will be forced to stay on the right side with Dan Moore Jr. on the left. By the time they flip Jones back to the left he will have just as much experience on the right side at the NFL level as he did on the left side in college.
“I had this conversation with somebody over the weekend and we were talking about that, and he said, ‘Look, tomorrow’s not promised…where’s the trust meter?'” Jeremiah said. “If you phrase it that way, I would give Guyton the edge over Mims. I think Mims has more in his body; both of these guys have crazy high ceilings.
But right now, we gotta go play tomorrow. I need somebody to start 17 games next season and play winning football. I think I would probably flip it and I would probably lean towards Guyton in that scenario.”
The Steelers are arguably in that scenario. As exciting as Mims’ potential may be, his eight college starts are a difficult thing to have full confidence in to make him a first-round pick. He very well could end up the better player in the long term, but it would create a weird situation in the immediate term in Pittsburgh for a team that has the urgency to win now. Brooks finished the segment by saying, “Mims is a little more of a luxury.” Are the Steelers in a position to take a luxury player who may need additional time to develop?
Check out our in-depth scouting reports on both prospects below:
