Amarius Mims Among Top Early Contenders For Major 2026 NFL Season Award

The Bengals may soon sport the best right tackle in the NFL. ESPN's Bill Barnwell dropped his quarter-season awards article last week and has Amarius Mims third on his Protector of the Year rankings.

The young Georgia product has not allowed a full sack in 2026 and is slotted only behind 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams and Broncos guard Quinn Meinerz in Barnwell's gauge.

"After taking a major step forward a year ago, the Bengals right tackle has leveled up again and emerged as arguably the best pass-protecting right tackle in the league," Barnwell wrote. "The Bengals have a quarterback in Joe Burrow who wants to get five eligibles out into pass routes, and when they do, help a tackle, it's usually Orlando Brown Jr. Mims has been one-on-one against pass rushers at the third-highest rate in the league this season, and he has excelled in a pass-happy offense, allowing just a half-sack and two quick pressures on 169 pass-rush snaps. He's also 12th in run block win rate, suggesting that the 2024 first-round pick is holding his own as a run blocker, too."

Mims somehow only has a 62.8 Pro Football Focus grade despite all those great marks. There's a huge gap between that RBWR listed by Barnwell and his career-low 45.5 PFF run-blocking grade, but all in all, he's been exactly what fans should expect in Year 3.

At this rate, Mims will reset the offensive tackle on a contract extension sometime next offseason. Cincinnati should try to do it as quickly as possible once the season ends to get ahead of other deals that will happen in the ensuing months.

Bengals coaches have been impressed with 6-8, 350-pound mauler this season.

"There's a lot of really talented people, but there's a fraction of the players in this league that truly can be special, and he is in that fraction," Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said after facing T.J. Watt and the Steelers. "T.J. Watt is one of the best to ever do that job. To be matched up one-on-one as often as he was without help yesterday (he got some, but not a lot), and to just be consistent and to take the right set.

"There's such confidence for him in knowing, 'If I just take this set on the angle that I need to take it on and my eyes are in the right place and I strike when I'm supposed to strike,' there's very little the guy across from him can do to counter that. He just has to stay on the path he's on."

Check out the full piece from Barnwell here.

Amarius Mims allowed 0 pressures on 32 pass block opportunities today vs. the Dolphins, per PFF initial charting.

If that holds, it's his 4th clean sheet in 5 games.

Best pass-blocking RT in the NFL. https://t.co/Neh02hXZAI
— Gridiron Grading (@GridironGrading) October 11, 2026

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