5 rookies who are making the Bengals look very smart for drafting them

When it takes your favorite team four weeks to win their first game, you probably didn't have a good September. Especially if that one win was an ugly one against an opponent who was projected to be a bottom-feeder.

While the Bengals have recovered from slow starts before (0-2 to 12-4 in 2022 and 0-2 to 9-8 in 2023), 0-3 is an unprecedented start for Joe Burrow. His worst start was in his rookie season, and even then they managed to go 0-2-1 instead. While they got a much-needed win in the other Queen City, they now have to head back to their own and defend the Jungle in a tough divisional matchup against a Ravens squad who just dominated one of the AFC's top contenders in the Buffalo Bills on national television.

Although September turned out to be a bust for Bengals fans, there is at least one positive to take away from it, and that is that the team's rookie class looks really good. Granted, it's a small sample size, but there has been a lot of flash shown these past four weeks by the 2024 draftees, and there are a few who look like they'll be occupying their spots on the team for the foreseeable future.

Here's are five rookies who are making Cincinnati's front office look smart for drafting them.

Amarius Mims, Offensive tackle

The front office doesn't have a great track record when it comes to drafting in the trenches. Billy Price, Tyler Shelvin, Zach Carter, Michael Jordan (not that one), and Jonah Williams are just a few names that come to mind when you think back to offensive and defensive line picks. However, after Burrow suffered the second season-ending injury of his young career, it became clear that they needed to start hitting on those picks, specifically catering to the offensive line.

We're only one start into the Amarius Mims project, but already it looks to be a good one. The Panthers don't have a top-tier D-Line, but they still have some notable players like Jadeveon Clowney, who Amarius Mims held up against pretty well. Did he make a few mistakes? Sure, but it was his first start, and he still had more moments where he looked like a veteran rather than a rookie.

If Mims can stay healthy, which was the biggest concern about him coming out of Georgia, and the main reason he fell to Cincinnati in the draft -- he might just be the young franchise tackle the Bengals have been looking for.

Kris Jenkins Jr., Defensive tackle

Kris Jenkins Jr. is another pick that could alter the view of how well Cincinnati's front office scouts players in the trenches. Jenkins made a couple of huge plays against the Carolina Panthers in Week 4 that played a major role in getting Cincy's first win of the season. Undoubtedly, the best play 'The Mutant' made was on the first drive of the game, where he stopped running back Chuba Hubbard on the goal line on a huge fourth down. He kept up appearances, getting a hand on an Andy Dalton pass to help force an incompletion later in the game.

For a guy with a club on his hand, the former Wolverine played well against Carolina and has shown plenty of promise throughout the season so far. With how down and depleted the defensive line unit is, added on-field opportunity for Jenkins has been a silver lining. Considering those aforementioned injuries, we're likely to see a lot more of Jenkins moving forward.