INDIANAPOLIS – While pundits have dinged Miami defensive end Rueben Bain Jr.’s NFL draft stock because of his arm length, the first-round pass-rush prospect said NFL teams don’t seem to share the same concerns.
“None of the teams seem to be too concerned with it as long as I just can talk the talk and walk the walk, play the technique,” Bain said Wednesday, Feb. 25, at the NFL combine. “Nobody really asked me about it.”
Bain had an All-American season for Miami this year, recording 9½ sacks and a nation-leading 83 quarterback pressures, according to Pro Football Focus, while leading the Hurricanes to the national championship game.
But as dominant as he was last season and for most of his college career, Bain does not have prototype arm length for an NFL defensive end. According to The Athletic, Bain’s arms are 30¾ inches, about 2 inches shorter than teams prefer.
Bain called talk about his arm length “stuff … you see on social media,” and said “none of the teams mentioned that to me so I really don’t give the kind of time of day for it.”
More important, he said, is what he has done on the field.
Bain had five sacks in Miami’s three College Football Playoff games and had 33½ tackles for loss in his college career. He said his best traits are a high motor and an unwavering commitment to football.
“I eat, sleep and breath football, that’s all I do,” he said. “I don’t have no other hobbies, no other real interests outside of football. That’s all I care for, that’s all I want to do.”
Young and restless
Former Michigan State defensive end Zion Young, who transferred to Missouri in 2024 after the firing of Mel Tucker, could hear his name called in the first round of April’s draft.
Young, who had 6½ sacks and 16½ tackles for loss this season, said he has fond memories of his two seasons at MSU.
“My time at Michigan State was pretty good,” Young said. “I had pretty good coaches. Kevin Vickerson, Marco Coleman and BT [Brandon Jordan]. It was really like an old-school coaching staff there, so they was really on my rear end. It was hard coaching for the most part but it was very fun. I enjoyed myself.”
Asked if he still would be a potential first-round pick had he stayed in East Lansing, Young said, “Oh, that’s a good question.”
“We don’t know what we don’t know,” he said. “If I was there, shoot, we would have found out, but I ain’t there. I ended up transferring to Missouri, and here we are today. I thank God for this.”
Daniel Jeremiah on the DL class in NFL draft
NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said the 2026 edge rush class is one of the deepest in recent memory.
“There’s not a Myles Garrett in my opinion, there’s not a Nick Bosa,” Jeremiah said. “Those guys, we’ve had other years where we’ve had guys carry bigger individual grades. But we have three legit top-10 players in this draft and we’ve got depth. I think you can get depth all the way into the fourth round where you’ll see guys making an impact next year. So yeah, it’s a really good group.”
Jeremiah ranks Texas Tech’s David Bailey as the top pass rusher and No. 3 overall prospect in the draft and has Ohio State outside linebacker Arvell Reese (No. 4) and Bain (No. 6) in his top 10. He has three other pass rushers – Miami’s Akheem Mesidor, Texas A&M’s Cashius Howell and Auburn’s Keldric Faulk – in the top 30.
In his last mock draft, Jeremiah gave Clemson edge rusher T.J. Parker, his No. 32 overall prospect, to the Detroit Lions with the 17th pick of the first round.
“I think [the class is] really good,” Jeremiah said. “I think it’s really deep.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: NFL combine highlights: Miami’s Rueben Bain dismisses arm length issue
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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