INDIANAPOLIS — Amarius Mims cuts an imposing presence anywhere he is. The mammoth former Georgia football offensive tackle goes about 6-foot-7 and upwards of 340 pounds.

It was a different Mims that appeared Saturday morning at his allotted media time at the NFL combine.

The usually gregarious Mims dialed it back a little. It took him nearly 30 seconds to break out in a big smile.

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The familiar streaks of red or orange in his hair were gone, too.

“It’s a job interview,” Mims said. “Trying to look as presentable as possible.”

He credited 2023 first-round draft pick Broderick Jones, another former Georgia offensive tackle, with showing him how to “turn the switch on and off when to be serious.”

Mims is widely projected as a first-round pick, too. He said he’s met with 25 teams and mentioned that, during his time with the Cowboys, Raiders and Jets, he got some pointed questions.

“They tried to pick me apart a little bit, which I enjoy,” he said. “I had them ask some hard questions. That’s the combine. It’s a job interview. I don’t mind answering those tough questions and I don’t mind getting asked those tough questions.”

Mims didn’t what to divulge what those questions were.

“I ain’t going to really elaborate on that, I’m going to keep that between us,” he said.

Mims, who declared for the draft after three seasons at Georgia, said Bulldog offensive tackles currently in the NFL helped him grow.

He mentioned Jamaree Salyer, Warren McClendon and Jones as those who showed him the way.

“I’m way different from 18 years old to 21,” he said. “I’ve learned so much. When to turn it on, when to turn it off. That’s off the field. I mean as a freshman, you’re kind of immature. You have the high school vibe. Feel like you need to play.”

Mims started just eight games at Georgia.

His first came in the national semifinal win over Ohio State in the Peach Bowl and then the national championship game rout of TCU for injured Warren McClendon.

He had TightRope surgery for a high ankle sprain sustained in the third week of the 2023 season, which limited him to six starts.

“Those eight starts are as good as any lineman in this class,” ESPN draft analyst Matt Miller said. “I’m confident he’s going to be if not the best workout at the combine of offensive linemen, one of the best workouts.”

Mims said he wants to show in his Sunday workout at Lucas Oil Stadium that he’s fully healthy now and “that I can move better and just as good as anybody else out there.”

Mims did not allow a sack and just six quarterback pressures in 376 career pass blocks, according to Pro Football Focus.

Georgia’s other offensive lineman at the combine, center Sedrick Van-Pran Granger, started 44 games, more than five times as many as Mims.

“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.

The former five-star from Bleckley County High also was a transfer portal free agent, who went in the portal in April 2022 and considered Florida State before returning to Athens.

“I look back on it as kind of an immature decision,” he said. “I felt like I was ready to play. I remember coach (Kirby) Smart talking to me before I left, ‘Just remember the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. I went to go see myself.”

It was a costly recruitment for the Seminoles, whose offensive coordinator Alex Atkins drew a three-game suspension for having Mims meet with someone from an NIL collective during his visit, according to the Associated Press.

Mims was offered $15,000 a month if he enrolled at Florida State.

As part of the negotiated resolution, the school agreed to two years of probation and the loss of five scholarships over two seasons.

Mims left the 27-24 SEC Championship game loss against Alabama after re-injuring the ankle and skipped the Orange Bowl.

“It wasn’t my proudest game, honestly,” he said. “I went down, I want to say play 12. I wish I could have finished the game with my guys. We fell up short. If I could go back to that game, I wish I wouldn’t have got bumped up on my ankle again. If we were 100 percent healthy, it would have been a different outcome in that game,:

Mims said he’s told teams he went to a strong program “where they prepared me on and off the field as a man and as a player. I feel like I’m ready.”

Van Pran-Granger said with Mims’ ability, "you don’t need to play 40-something games to be a good football player. He has the gift of God. He doesn’t need to go out there and get 1,000 reps. He’s a good football player. The one thing I’ll say that I’m really, really proud of him is he’s grown since freshman until now is level of maturity. He’s really taken the game seriously. He’s grown and done the work to be the man he is today.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Maturing UGA football OT Amarius Mims a first-round NFL draft prospect