If the Pittsburgh Steelers are seriously considering Georgia OT Amarius Mims, Wednesday is an important day. After injuring his hamstring during his 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, Mims was unable to participate in the Bulldogs’ Pro Day on March 13. Instead, he and TE Brock Bowers will hold individual workouts tomorrow.
For many prospects, Pro Day workouts mean a little but not a lot. For Mims, it’s a significant factor. The biggest knocks on him have been health and lack of experience. He started only eight games at Georgia, twice during the 2022 season and six times in 2023 while he played less than 900 offensive snaps in college.
A high ankle sprain that led to surgery caused him to miss chunks of this past year and when he did play, he often didn’t log 100 percent of Georgia’s snaps. There were games he would start and leave or ones where he’d come off the bench and rotate in at right tackle. Despite playing at a college football powerhouse, a lack of tape makes him hard to evaluate.
That has made his pre-draft process more important than others. With the hamstring injury, many of those chances have been lost. Mims couldn’t perform the on-field drills at the Combine after pulling his hamstring and wasn’t healthy enough to work out less than two weeks later when the NFL flocked to Georgia’s Pro Day. Pittsburgh sent the house, including Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan. There’s still value to be had, perhaps Mims had a Pro Day dinner with the team, but from an on-field perspective, the NFL keeps waiting.
Logically, the Steelers will send someone to Amarius Mims’ workout. It probably won’t be a decision-maker like Tomlin or Khan. Perhaps it will be OL Coach Pat Meyer or assistant Isaac Williams, two faces who have been active on the Pro Day trail. Or it could just be an area scout to get a firsthand view of his session. Tape from tomorrow’s session will be sent out to all 32 teams to evaluate as they begin their final draft meetings and cementing their draft board.
Unfortunately, gleaning insights into who attends these sessions are more difficult than normal Pro Days. Media presence is far lighter if they attend at all. For Iowa’s individual workouts, led by potential first-round pick Cooper DeJean, we only received pieces of information. A handful of personnel members, none including the Steelers, along with some school-provided social media highlights and testing on Cooper, a highly regard cornerback, and Northern Iowa DT Khristian Boyd. A bigger school and big names like Bowers and Mims should shine a larger spotlight on the event but still, information will be scarcer.
In a deep offensive tackle the Steelers have thoroughly explored, Pittsburgh has options. If Mims doesn’t show well tomorrow, or – knock on wood – gets hurt again mid-workout, it could be a deciding factor. Ultimately, for anyone to make Mims their pick, they’ll have to feel comfortable absorbing the risk of balancing Mims’ upside, his size and strength and potential alongside his lack of playing time and more difficult projection. It’s why scouts are mixed on Amarius Mims’ draft stock and makes Wednesday a critical day.
