Film room: Amarius Mims, the monster in the trenches

Potential right tackle option in the draft

Now that Jermaine Eluemunor is officially gone after signing with the New York Giants in free agency, the Las Vegas Raiders need a right tackle to fill the two-year starter’s shoes. One of the top prospects at the position in this year’s NFL Draft class is Georgia’s Amarius Mims.

Granted, Mims is pretty raw as he lacks experience with only eight starts in college and a little more than 800 total snaps in three seasons, according to Pro Football Focus. He was a backup during his first two years in Athens, getting a good amount of reps off the bench in 2022, and then suffered a couple of ankle injuries this past season that limited his playing time.

However, the nearly 6-foot-8, 340-pound offensive tackle with over 36-inch arms and a 9.56 RAS out of 10 has plenty of traits to suggest he could be a good pro. The former Bulldog’s measurements alone are enough to flip on the tape, so let’s take a look at what he can bring to the table.

Georgia is running mid-zone here with Mims on the backside executing a backside cutoff block. In most zone-run blocking schemes, offensive linemen are taught to take the defender where he wants to go. That means the lineman should use the defender’s momentum against them to exaggerate the direction they are heading and move them out of the way.

So, with Ole Miss twisting or having its nose tackle and defensive end gap exchange, Mims does an excellent job of recognizing the end is working inside and washing the end to the left tackle, helping to create a massive cutback lane for the running back.

Also, notice how Mims has his outside arm perfectly placed on the end’s back shoulder. The end is trying to work back to the outside to avoid getting washed, but with the tackle’s hand placement, size and strength, it doesn’t matter as the offense gets a five-yard gain.

This time Mims is on the front side of the zone run and has some help from the tight end on the combo block. However, he doesn’t need much assistance.

At the point of contact, the tackle has great hand placement and impressive strength to get some lift on the defender and take away any leverage advantage the defender has. That’s especially important for taller offensive linemen because it’s going to be difficult — and sometimes physically impossible — for them to get their helmet underneath the defender’s.

Also, Mims has a great leg drive to help get about five yards of vertical displacement, resulting in another chunk gain on the ground.

Moving onto a few reps in pass protection where Mims’ athletic ability stands out.

For starters, he has an excellent get-off to help hit his landmark while vertical setting to avoid getting beat with speed around the edge. He then lands his punch perfectly with the outside hand on the V of the pass-rusher’s jersey/kneck to help gain control of the block and the inside hand pinning the rusher’s inside arm down.

To finish, Mims keeps his feet moving and uses his hands to ride the defender by on the high side of the rush, helping create a clean pocket for the quarterback to throw from.

Now, to nitpick him a little bit, I would like to see him be more patient when opening up his hips to the sideline. He’s a little early here which opens up the inside lane for the pass-rusher. That’s something he struggles with and needs to work on as quick rushers will give him trouble by winning with inside moves or counters.

For context, Mims is wearing No. 77 in the clip above to honor his late teammate Devin Willock.

Defending against stunts is one area of the Georgia product’s game that got better as last season wore on and he got more experience. The clip above is a great example as Tennessee runs a T/E stunt.

This line game is designed to catch the offensive tackle off-guard by having the defensive tackle attack the offensive tackle and, ideally, get the offensive player off-balance. However, once Mims sees the edge player work inside, his eyes go straight to the interior defender and he gets his hands up to defend against the rush.

Through great communication and teamwork with the right guard, the Volunteers’ line game is effectively negated.

We’ll end with a clip you might have seen before as it went viral during the season.

This time, Tennessee tries an E/T stunt where the end or edge goes first and tries to catch the guard off-guard. However, Mims does his best Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing impersonation, using his hands and impressive strength to lift the edge defender in the air as he passes the defender off to the guard, who helps finish off the play with a loud statement. Nobody puts baby in a corner, but the Bulldogs’ offensive line will put this pass-rusher on the ground.

On top of it, Mims is able to redirect and still pick up the defensive tackle looping around the edge. There might not be a better example of his strength and feet in pass protection than this rep.