“I played a little banged-up last year, especially toward the end of the season. That’s what comes with it,” Mims said. “Now I’m just focused on being more of a pro. Taking care of your body. Those bumps and bruises at the beginning of the season, you feel them. But they add up as you go. The more you go, the better the competition, the better the game. You’ve just go to be able to take care of your body.”
It’s not so much he played so few snaps at Georgia. It’s that he didn’t really have a chance to physically prepare for this last season in the whirlwind of the draft.
“I was going, going, going. This offseason is different. It’s my first offseason,” says Mims, who was also coming off ankle surgery. “I get time to myself. I can clear my mind and think. It’s been really good for me. Just slowing things down.”
New Bengals offensive line coach Scott Peters knows exactly what he’s getting. When Peters coached the Patriots offensive line last spring, he also wondered about the big kid from Georgia who made only six starts. He’d like to have seen a larger body of work from a potential first-round pick.
So Peters went to Athens for his pro day, where he was surprised to discover Mims wouldn’t participate. But Peters made the most of his visit and talked to Mims for an hour in the team room, where he was impressed with his grasp of the offense despite his limited snaps.
“I really enjoyed talking to him. I was really impressed with the character,” Peters says. “Amarius is a rare talent. He’s got great movement skills. He’s extremely powerful, and his great size. When you put all those things together, plus he’s an intelligent kid, good person, high character. All that stuff helps make that projection … I think with Armarius it was pretty obvious this was a special talent.”
Like the Bengals, Peters went thumbs-up.