{"id":560251,"date":"2026-03-25T18:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T18:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/560251\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T18:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T18:11:09","slug":"yes-rueben-bain-jr-s-arms-are-short-by-nfl-standards-heres-why-it-doesnt-really-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/560251\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, Rueben Bain Jr.’s arms are short by NFL standards. Here’s why it doesn’t really matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

As April\u2019s NFL Draft<\/a> inches closer and closer, one of the hottest debates this year revolves around Miami star edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr.<\/a> The debate isn\u2019t surrounding whether or not he\u2019s good enough to go in the first round; that much is a consensus and resounding yes.<\/a> It\u2019s exactly how good he can be within the framework of his tangible physical benchmarks.<\/p>\n

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To be specific, Bain\u2019s arm length (measured in at 30 7\/8\u201d at the NFL combine)<\/a> has some worrying that he\u2019s not worth a top draft pick and that his potential is low due to having short arms, which is a fair concern to have \u2014 but it\u2019s incomplete. Part of the reason why Bain is considered a high draft pick is because he\u2019s already shown the ability to mitigate this shortcoming, and he has the physical traits needed to thrive with shorter arms.<\/p>\n

Rueben Bain Jr. has already shown ability to mitigate shorter arms<\/p>\n

Thanks to a dominant run through the College Football Playoff, Bain has become a well-known player at the top of this draft and likely won\u2019t wait long to hear his name called. While it\u2019s not the entire season, that run to the national championship game is a great framework through which to view Bain. In the four playoff games that Miami played, Bain was a menace with five sacks and eight tackles for loss, most of which came in Miami\u2019s win over Texas A&M in the first round of the playoffs. While that game was the peak of his destructive powers, he still showed that he\u2019s got enough solutions already to counter the arm length critics even in the games where he didn\u2019t stuff the stat sheet.<\/p>\n

For defensive ends with shorter arms, one thing they absolutely have to have is the weight and frame to play a more physical brand of football. Where defensive ends with the Mr. Fantastic<\/a> arms can use their arm length to keep offensive tackles at bay as they rush, shorter armed players play almost the exact opposite way. Having enough power to play through the chest of an offensive linemen is a critical skill to have \u2014 just about every single starting offensive tackle, and their backup, in the NFL has arms that measure far beyond Bain\u2019s 30 7\/8 inches. For Bain, and players built like him, playing through offensive tackles post-contact is normally going to be the cleanest mode of operation. Bain weighs over 260 pounds, which makes him a dense player at 6-foot-2.<\/p>\n

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The power he\u2019s able to generate is the base of his game. Everything else that he can do on the field starts here. Bain didn\u2019t do any athletic testing at the combine or his pro day, but the explosion he possesses as an athlete is readily apparent on the field. He\u2019s a load at the point of attack and his ability to quickly get into, and power through, the bodies of offensive linemen is a signature trait.<\/p>\n

When he does keep his chest clean during a rush, which he does exceptionally well for someone with his lack of length, Bain has routinely shown off the burst and closing speed to rush around the edge and put pressure on the quarterback. His effort is consistently high and he clearly has the speed to be a threat outside of the pocket.<\/p>\n

Bain\u2019s strength and speed at the point of attack allowed him to play on the interior from time to time in Miami\u2019s defense as well, where he was able to cause havoc and open things up for his teammates. While the arm length may affect what his base counting stats look like in the NFL, his body type gives him positional flexibility on rush downs that can unlock a defense\u2019s pass rush in the right looks. Being a squattier player on a position that stresses leverage isn\u2019t necessarily a huge knock, especially since he has the strength to play with the stronger offensive linemen that he saw at the college level.<\/p>\n

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Rueben Bain Jr. won\u2019t be a fit for every team, and that\u2019s OK<\/p>\n

While Bain is a complete player at defensive end, the arm length critics do have a point to a degree. Bain\u2019s overall game sets a tremendously high floor for him as a prospect, but there just aren\u2019t many players with his build who have been consistent double-digit sack threats. My Football 301 co-host Nate Tice<\/a> compared Bain to Brandon Graham. That would be a great career for Bain to have, but even Graham only had one 10-sack season in his career \u2014 which came at age 34 in 2022. Graham\u2019s frame helped him be a durable player for a long time in the NFL and hopefully that can translate for Bain as well. Still, the idea that a defensive end taken in the top five might not be a consistent 10-sack guy is a hard pill for some people to swallow.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the truth that Bain isn\u2019t really a fit for every system. Unlike Arvell Reese or David Bailey, whose builds and top-end speed make them a fit for 3-4 teams that stand their edge rushers up in two-point stances, Bain is a classic 4-3 \u201chand in the dirt\u201d defensive end. For teams that play that style, that\u2019s not a concern, but for teams that might require a bit more versatility from their edge rushers in terms of being able to drop into space, Bain won\u2019t be a fit for them. However, that really just comes down to personal preference and scheme fit.<\/p>\n

Bain just offers so much from a run defense and physicality standpoint that it\u2019s hard to get too caught up on that. It\u2019s not like he\u2019s a one-trick pony that can only rush the passer. He truly is a technician as a run defender and takes advantage of the inherent athletic traits that he already possesses. If Bain can come in and be a Brandon Graham-level player for a decade, he\u2019d likely be worth a top-five pick in what\u2019s perceived to be a weaker draft class. If the Titans aren\u2019t done adding to their defensive line room, there might not be a more perfect player-scheme fit in the top five than Bain to Robert Saleh\u2019s defense. He\u2019d plug in cleanly as a defensive end in that scheme, and playing next to Jeffrey Simmons would give him a credible interior presence to give him better rush opportunities as a rookie.<\/p>\n

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Don\u2019t let combine thresholds be the end of the story of a prospect. Bain already offers a lot of solutions to the problems that his arm length should cause and has set himself up to be, at worst, a capable starter from a physicality standpoint. Considering he won\u2019t turn 22 until September of his rookie year, he\u2019s still just scratching the surface of the player he can become.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As April\u2019s NFL Draft inches closer and closer, one of the hottest debates this year revolves around Miami…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[216540,152740,108921,49,48,5404,514,13594,10492,23264,82],"class_list":["post-560251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-arm-length","tag-bain","tag-brandon-graham","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-college-football-playoff","tag-nfl","tag-offensive-linemen","tag-player","tag-rueben-bain-jr","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}