{"id":244154,"date":"2026-04-24T02:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/244154\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T02:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:22:08","slug":"rueben-bain-jr-selected-by-tampa-bay-buccaneers-with-pick-no-15-in-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/244154\/","title":{"rendered":"Rueben Bain Jr. selected by Tampa Bay Buccaneers with pick No. 15 in 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage<\/a> of the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made Miami defensive lineman Rueben Bain Jr. the 15th pick of the first round in the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a>. He was the third edge rusher taken.<\/p>\n

Bain\u2019s below-average arm length is the one consistent knock he received from scouts throughout the evaluation process, but his production for the Hurricanes was unquestionable. The former top-100 recruit out of Miami Central High earned consensus All-America honors as a junior in 2025, leading the nation with 83 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus, while recording 9.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss for the national runner-up.<\/p>\n

He missed four games as a sophomore because of a soft tissue injury and produced only 3.5 sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss in nine games in 2024. As a freshman, the 6-foot-2 1\/4, 263-pound Bain had 7.5 sacks and 12.5 TFLs to earn ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year honors.<\/p>\n

NFL teams looked into a March 2024 car accident the 21-year-old Miami native was involved in, which led to the tragic death of a young woman. But Bain, who was cited for careless driving twice in college, was not charged with any wrongdoing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Beast\u2019 breakdown<\/p>\n

Bain ranked No. 9 on Dane Brugler\u2019s top 300 big board<\/a>. Here\u2019s what Brugler had to say about him in his annual NFL Draft guide<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cBain has some size\/speed constraints, but his power profile, leveraged attack and tenacious play style show in all areas of his game and directly lead to backfield disruption. He projects as a scheme-versatile NFL starter who can line up wide, over the tackle or inside as a three-technique.<\/p>\n

Coaching intel<\/p>\n

What an anonymous assistant coach had to say about Bain in Bruce Feldman\u2019s mock draft<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cAll those people who talk about how short his arms are are idiots. This is just an asinine conversation that people are having. Watch his film. He\u2019s gonna be a dude. He\u2019s gonna be an elite pass rusher. He gets off the ball. He has elite power. You turn speed into power, arm length doesn\u2019t matter. He\u2019ll neutralize their length. He\u2019s elite, man. Did you watch his (pro day)? He can get his right shoulder almost on the ground when he\u2019s turning the corner, and the violence he\u2019s coming out of it with \u2014 what he did in that drill is rare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Dochterman grades the pick<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay got a steal here with Bain. Considered a top-10 talent, Bain fell to No. 15, which aligns with the Buccaneers\u2019 positional needs. Tampa Bay largely has journeymen at that position group, so Bain immediately gives the group a weapon. Now, how much will Todd Bowles adjust his defense to accommodate Bain, who is more of a 4-3 edge who can kick inside on passing downs? That remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Bain was a destructive force on the national runner-up defense with 9.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss last season. Bain was a consensus first-team All-American and boasts rare power and explosiveness, but his arm length (30 7\/8) provides cause for concern. Grade: A<\/p>\n

Execs Intel<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay getting Bain at No. 15 looks like a coup based on execs\u2019 expectations at the combine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see Bain going as high as 2 to the Jets,\u201d one exec said at the time, suggesting Bain reminded him of Terrell Suggs as a tone-setting player.<\/p>\n

The league at large disagreed, obviously, and there could be good reasons for that. Still, no one would have blinked if a team had selected Bain inside the top 10. -Mike Sando<\/p>\n

How he fits<\/p>\n

Bain\u2019s short arm concerns will be alleviated with Tampa Bay. Todd Bowles is as creative with his fronts as any play caller. Bain will line up in different spots and he\u2019ll get to do a ton of movement with slants in his pressure scheme. -Ted Nguyen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 NFL Draft. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made Miami defensive lineman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5079,119,135,2964,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-244154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-miami-hurricanes","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-tampa","11":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","12":"tag-tampa-headlines","13":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}