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Cincinnati Bengals offensive line coach Scott Peters says that star lineman Amarius Mims has a "license to kill" in 2026.

The Cincinnati Bengals are looking for their offensive line to take a major leap forward as a unit in 2026. Bringing back their entire starting unit from a season ago, including star Amarius Mims, that seems like a reasonable goal to have too.

Bengals offensive line coach Scott Peters knows that his unit needs to take another step forward. Discussing that next step for Mims, in particular, on the Bengals Booth Podcast, he made some interesting comments. That included that Mims has a “license to kill” this upcoming season.

Scott Peters Wants Amarius Mims to Bring the Right Attitude to the 2026 Season

While saying that a player has a license to kill can seem strong, it’s about the attitude that Scott Peters wants to see Amarius Mims play with. As he explained during his appearance on Bengals Booth Podcast, it’s about pushing the young lineman to be the best he can be.

“Total domination. It’s license to kill. I mean, seriously. I said last year, you’ve got to be greedy about how good you could be. Because, you know, there’s very few humans walking planet Earth that have the potential and the talent, really the talent that he has, and has the makeup that he has, the ability athletically, the physical stature, the size, the power, the strength, the movement skills, and for him, it’s time to really kind of let the world know,” Peters said.

“He’s got a license to kill. Hey, you know, sometimes when you’re a big guy growing up, everybody tells you, ‘Hey, don’t break anything. Hey, Amarius, break something man, let’s go. It’s time to go. You can push the limit. Man, we want to see what you can do.’ So he’s starting to see that, and I think that for him, just watching his ability shine through, and that’s when the game becomes a lot of fun for him.”

A first-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Mims is now getting ready for his third season in the NFL. In that short career, he’s already proved to be incredibly important for the Bengals, having played in 32 games over that time. That’s helped him total 1,885 snaps. Now, he wants to jump into the ranks of the elite tackles in the game.

PFF Chose Amarius Mims as a Breakout Candidate in 2026

At the end of January, PFF made a bold proclamation, calling for Amarius Mims to be a breakout candidate in 2026. This came as he had emerged as the anchor of the Cincinnati Bengals’ offensive line, and the team seemed to take a major step forward along that unit later in the 2025 season.

Dalton Wasserman of PFF wrote up why they were so bullish on Mims.

“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.”

It would be great if Mims could take another step forward in his career. Not only would it make it easier to run the ball and keep Joe Burrow standing, but it would take pressure off the rest of the offensive line as well.