The Bengals got 2026 started with a 33-27 win over the Bucs, and one of the biggest reasons was the kind of clean pocket Joe Burrow had for most of the afternoon. Tampa Bay came into the game hoping its upgraded front could make life difficult, especially with rookie first-round pick Rueben Bain Jr. drawing plenty of buzz out of training camp.
Instead, Amarius Mims shut that down fast.
The Bengals’ right tackle put together a dominant season debut and kept Bain off the stat sheet in every way that matters. No sacks.
No quarterback hits. No hurries.
No pressures. For a player who arrived with plenty of fanfare, Bain ran into a wall.
Per Pro Football Focus, it was only the fourth time in Mims’ career that he finished a game without allowing a pressure. The last time came in Week 8 of 2025 against the New York Jets. More importantly for Cincinnati, his pass protection has been heading in the right direction.
Mims’ pressure rate allowed has dropped steadily since Week 11 of last season, which is exactly the kind of trend the Bengals want to see protecting Burrow.
That matters even more because Mims is already moving toward a major financial decision point. Drafted in the first round in 2024, he’s under contract through at least 2027, with Cincinnati holding a team option for 2028. But he becomes extension-eligible as early as next year.
Around the league, teams have increasingly tried to lock up young standouts early, using the cheaper years of rookie deals to soften the blow of second contracts. The Bengals haven’t usually operated that way.
They passed on early extensions for Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins after three years, Chase Brown is on the final year of his rookie deal, and Dax Hill was taken to his fifth-year option. The two notable early exceptions in recent memory are Burrow and kicker Evan McPherson.
That said, Cincinnati has started to behave a little differently lately, including a modest bump in free-agent spending this year. Mims could be next.
Since entering the league in 2024, he has played just under 1,800 snaps across 30 games. He has allowed a pressure rate of 5.48% and posted PFF grades of 52.6 in run blocking and 60.8 in pass blocking as a rookie, then 64.8 in run blocking and 66.6 in pass blocking in 2025. His run blocking has stood out, and his pass protection has steadily improved.
His market is already taking shape somewhere between the cap-adjusted deals signed by Tytus Howard in 2023 and Jonah Williams in 2024. Those contracts offer the closest two-year comparison to where Mims stands now.
Williams’ adjusted APY comes out to $17.65 million, while Howard’s is $25 million. Mims’ age pushes him toward the higher end of that range, though.
He’ll be 24 for most of this season and 25 when he becomes extension-eligible next year, which is two years younger than the other two were when they signed.
The numbers are climbing around him, too. His fifth-year option is projected at just over $21 million.
The 2027 franchise tag for offensive linemen is currently at $30 million, and 2028 should be even higher, likely around $32 million. The longer Cincinnati waits, the pricier this gets.
If Mims keeps building on what he showed in Week 1, a four-year, $120 million extension would make sense for the Bengals. That would keep him in Cincinnati through 2032 and carry a total cost of $143.9 million. The effective APY would land just under $24 million per year, a number that fits the current market without getting out of hand.
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Bengals Just Proved Something Important When Ja'Marr Chase Was Quiet
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Mike Gesicki was one of the players who benefited from the extra attention paid to Chase, and that matters because the Bengals need more than one reliable answer when defenses start shading coverage toward their star. The bigger question now is how Cincinnati adjusts from here, especially with Houston coming up and the matchups looking different enough to give Chase a better chance to get rolling. Week 1 proved the Bengals can survive an off night from him, but the more important test is whether they can turn that into an advantage when opponents start guessing wrong. [Read more 🡒]