CINCINNATI -- The red stripe on his helmet might as well have been a neon warning sign.
In the youth football fields near Cochran, Georgia, players of a certain size had a piece of red tape plastered down the middle, indicating they exceeded the weight limit for ballcarriers.
So if the ball ever found the way into Amarius Mims' hands, the play was over. The risk of an impending collision to a smaller player overruled any number of yards gained. And Mims was playing in an age group above his own.
"I caught a pick one time and I had to just stand there," Mims said.
Throughout his entire youth career, Mims' size always made him an outlier. But with the Cincinnati Bengals, he's one of three 6-foot-8 offensive tackles. And that mammoth frame, coupled with a rare blend of talent, has helped him make an immediate impact for the Bengals' offensive line. That line will be put to the test Sunday in a key AFC North matchup with the Baltimore Ravens (1 p.m., ET, CBS). The Ravens had 13 sacks after the first four weeks, only seven teams had more.
Despite being a rookie, Mims has solidified a Cincinnati front that has produced the best blocking unit quarterback Joe Burrow has ever had in his five-year NFL career. And after Mims' first pro start, Cincinnati still remains fortunate that he was still on the board when the Bengals made the 18th pick.
"He's a big man who moves better than 99.9 percent of other people that are his size," said Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher. "And there's not that many people walking this earth that are his size. He's got all the tools."
Even though he was bigger than all the other kids he played against, coaches immediately realize he was a unique talent. Rick Waters, who was one of Mims' youth coaches from roughly the ages of six to 12, said Mims was the only player who donned a red stripe who carried a high level of athleticism. To prevent him from getting double-teamed on the line of scrimmage, he was a linebacker on defense, which allowed him to operate in space.
Opposing teams constantly questioned whether Mims was playing in the appropriate age. The Cochran-Bleckley County Recreation Department kept a copy of Mims' birth certificate on file in the office. Eventually, his mother, Nikki Mims, carried one as well to answer questions from opposing teams.
"This kid was twice the size of everybody I played with, if not more than twice their size," said Waters, who also runs Snow's Asian Grill, where Mims' go-to order is a triple-steak and rice. "We got that question about every time we played a new team."
But what was never in doubt was how good of an athlete Amarius was. At Bleckley County High, he played basketball but suffered a knee injury as a freshman that required surgery. He came back in time to start football for his sophomore season.
Von Lassiter, Mims' high school head coach, said Mims didn't argue it at all and trusted the staff. That move was validated when Mims played left tackle in a state all-star game after his sophomore year and his recruiting stock skyrocketed.
"He got every offer in the country after that," Lassiter said. "I mean, when that all-star video went out of him playing left tackle, it was Georgia and Florida the next day and it was just over. It was everybody in the nation."
He signed with Georgia but had a limited sample size despite playing for the nation's best program. He was a backup for his first two seasons and then missed six games of his junior season with an ankle injury. In three seasons in college, he made only eight starts.
But the lack of game snaps is why the Bengals felt like he was going to be available when they were on the clock during the draft.
"He's as rare of a young player coming into the league as there can be," Bengals player personnel director Duke Tobin said at the team's annual media luncheon in July. "I look and say to myself 'We got him at 18?' That's normally what a top three or four or five pick looks like when they walk into your building."
Throughout offseason workouts and training camp, he was slotted as the starting right tackle. But after he suffered a pectoral injury after the preseason opener, veteran Trent Brown filled that role until Brown suffered a torn patella tendon in a Week 3 loss to the Washington Commanders.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor said one of the reasons Mims has been able to acclimate so well is his willingness to be coached and an understanding that he doesn't have all the answers.
In his short time in the league, he's soaked up knowledge from Brown and left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. -- who are both 6-8, like Mims.
"Y'all do not understand," Mims said with a laugh before his first start. "They have made life so much easier for me. I don't even know how put it into words, man. I owe them the world."
In his first start, Pitcher said Mims had his ups and downs lined up against Panthers defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, a former No. 1 pick with 53.5 career sacks. But Pitcher gave Mims credit for how he played in the 34-24 win, Cincinnati's first of the season.
And Burrow praised how well the offensive line played. This year, Burrow has been pressured on 19.5% of his dropbacks, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Before this season, that rate was an average of 32.2%.
After the win over Carolina, he singled out Mims for how well he fared in his first start.
"To have that performance against a rusher like [Clowney] was impressive," Burrow said. "He's just going to continue to get better and better."
The improvement Mims has made since entering the league was notable on his first trip back home.
In the offseason, he went to a practice at Bleckley County and talked to Lassiter about offensive play and some things that might help his old high school team. Then he and his coach went to Sugarberry's for a lunch buffet (Snow's is closed on Mondays).
And no matter how tall Mims already is, Lassiter could see a 21-year-old who is still growing.
"It's like, gosh, this kid has grown so much and not just physically, [but] mentally, he's learning," Lassiter said. "He understands the fronts and he understands the calls and he understands what's happening. I'm just so proud of him."