Packers Land Amarius Mims in Daniel Jeremiah’s ‘Chaos’ Mock Draft
GREEN BAY, Wis. – NFL.com draft guru Daniel Jermiah was “debating choosing chaos” for his third mock draft. He chose chaos, though that didn’t apply to the Green Bay Packers’ selection in his third mock draft.
While Jeremiah could envision the Packers going in “several … directions” with the 25th pick of the first round, he chose Georgia offensive tackle Amarius Mims. He would fill an enormous need following the release of David Bakhtiari and the departure of Yosh Nijman.
A “unique talent,” Mims is Jeremiah’s 20th-ranked prospect. The knock on him is an obvious one: The junior started eight games in his college career, with Mims missing a big chunk of his final season following ankle surgery. But, as Jeremiah put it, he is an “enormous” man at 6-foot-8 and 340 pounds with 36-inch arms and a Relative Athletic Score of 9.53.
In 2023, all 297 offensive snaps came at right tackle, and he allowed just one pressure. In 402 pass-protecting snaps over three seasons, also all at right tackle, he allowed zero sacks, zero hits and six total pressures, according to PFF. He was penalized once in his career.
“I know I don’t have the amount of starts and snaps as many guys here, but I feel I’m just as prepared and just as good everybody else here,” Mims said at the Combine.
He added later: “I feel like Georgia is the best college institution in the country and I feel like they prepared me and the guys, my teammates here, more than anyone else here, honestly. Just the hard coaching, the coaching staff we’ve got is the best coaching staff in the country. I strongly feel that’s true. They teach you how to grow up before your time and I had to do that real quick. I’m very thankful for that.”
The lack of playing time is the big question. Can he arrive in the NFL as a ready-made starter? Or will he have to grow into the job?
“I’m confident after we watch him workout that it’ll be, if not the best workout of the Combine for offensive linemen, one of the best workouts for offensive linemen,” ESPN.com’s Matt Miller said during a pre-Combine conference call.
“Somebody is going to talk themselves into, ‘OK, if we can get him consistently on the field’ – and it’s a little bit misleading, as you know. It wasn’t that he only started eight games because he was always hurt or because he wasn’t good, Georgia just had a great offensive line and he had to wait his turn. As soon as he got his turn late in 2022, he was amazing and, unfortunately, got hurt this year.”
Selecting Mims would lead to an interesting next step for the Packers. Would Zach Tom move to left tackle to supplant Rasheed Walker, or would Walker remain the left tackle and Tom would take a job in the interior of the line?
Mims was the seventh offensive tackle off the board. He was the choice over a pair of cornerbacks, including the often-mocked Iowa defensive back Cooper DeJean.
As for the “chaos” part, Jeremiah had quarterbacks going with each of the first four picks, including Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy going to the Vikings. The Bears went quarterback and receiver with their first two picks. The Lions took a cornerback.
Click here for the full mock draft.
