Rueben Bain Jr. to Bucs, Fans React to B/R's No. 1 EDGE Going 15th in 2026 NFL Draft

Rueben Bain Jr. is off the board.

The Miami edge-rusher was selected No. 15 overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the first round of the NFL draft.

New teammate Tristan Wirfs had a hilarious reaction to the pick:

GLD

That had fans and pundits intrigued and looking forward to what he might accomplish during his NFL career:

Bain, 21, was ranked as the No. 1 overall edge-rusher by the B/R NFL Scouting Department, ahead No. 2 overall pick David Bailey (Arvell Reese was classified as a linebacker).

B/R's Matt Holder compared him to Brandon Graham, noting that he has "good quickness for his size (6'2" and 260 pounds) and impressive movement skills," and the ability to "collapse the pocket when bull rushing and has impressive change-of-direction skills to be effective when turning speed to power."

He did note that Bain has "very short arms for an NFL edge defender," a talking point before the draft, though not everybody is terribly concerned with his arms.

"All those people who talk about how short his arms are are idiots," a Big Ten assistant coach told The Athletic's Bruce Feldman. "This is just asinine conversation that people are having. Watch his film. He's gonna be a dude. He's gonna be an elite pass rusher. He gets off the ball. He has elite power. You turn speed into power, arm length doesn't matter. He'll neutralize their length. He's elite, man. Did you watch his (pro day)? He can get his right shoulder almost on the ground when he's turning the corner, and the violence he's coming out of it with—what he did in that drill is rare."

It's safe to say Tampa Bay wasn't overly concerned with his arm length. For a Buccaneers team that only had one player with seven or more sacks last season (Yaya Diaby, seven), Bain falling to No. 15 was the absolute best-case scenario.