Cincinnati Bengals Offensive Lineman Deemed Team's Early 2026 Breakout Candidate

CINCINNATI — Amarius Mims quietly posted a strong sophomore season with the Bengals at right tackle, and Pro Football Focus analyst Dalton Wasserman thinks he's set up to really break out in 2026.

He picked Mims as the Bengals' top early 2026 breakout candidate after he logged a career-best 67.6 PFF grade on 1,050 snaps (835 as a rookie).

"After a season and a half full of consistent struggles, Mims may have turned a corner late in the season, potentially changing the complexion of Cincinnati’s offensive line," Wasserman wrote. "From Week 12 through Week 18, Mims earned an 81.0 PFF overall grade that ranked 13th among qualified offensive tackles. He also did not allow a sack across his final eight games of the season."

Mims really did seem to start nailing some things down in Scott Peters' offensive line system as his second season wrapped up. His play, along with the rest of the offensive line names like Orlando Brown Jr., Dylan Fairchild, Ted Karras, and Dalton Risner, all rowing together, is a big reason why the offensive line arrow's never pointed higher in the Joe Burrow era.

Risner is a guy Mims wants to keep partnering with on the right side of the offensive line. If Cincinnati signs him to another contract after a one-year agreement this past August, every starter will be locked in for the fall.

"We still have a championship team, in my mind," Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said a few weeks ago."We have elite, world-class players. We had a lot of challenges this year. We didn’t navigate them effectively enough. We navigated some of them as effectively as you could, and then we had challenges elsewhere.

"We have a quarterback we have taken great pains in building an offense around and for. And that offense took steps this year without him. With him, we feel like that is starting to just hit its stride with the way the offensive line came on. With the way the running game came on. I would tell you I saw things this year I wouldn’t have thought I would ever see."

Check out the full breakout candidate list here.

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