Rueben Bain Jr.'s short arms may be enough for him to fall in NFL Draft

· Yahoo Sports

In college, with Miami, pass-rusher Rueben Bain Jr. was a terror. Few amateur defenders over the last few years controlled the line of scrimmage quite like him. Bain leveraged his unique power and athleticism to bully offensive linemen who had no business standing in his way, en route to 15.5 tackles-for-loss and 9.5 sacks in his final season with the Hurricanes.

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But the NFL is different. Everyone on the field is a great athlete. Everyone. You can't get by on that alone. Every possible weakness or flaw can be exploited by your opponent in a way that many transitioning college players never quite get the hang of. For Bain, that flaw might be his short arms. The current projected top-10 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft had arms that measured in at just under 31 inches at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine. Given the general, free-flowing nature of the internet, many jokes were made at Bain's shorter-armed expense.

This is no laughing matter, though. While I'm of the opinion that the NFL world overindexes on combine testing — there's a reason I think Maxx Crosby's future is the only story really worth following from Indianapolis — that doesn't mean the results don't matter at all.

Like many NFL things from an analytical perspective, it's how you contextualize them. Plain and simple.

In this case, Bain's arms could be a huge problem for him at the next level. That doesn't mean they will be, but, again, they could! At just over 6-foot-2, he's already a shorter pass rusher. Taller offensive tackles with longer arms might be able to keep him at bay simply because of the difference in their respective body frames. He's already at a disadvantage against many offensive bookends before he even steps onto a professional field. If Bain had longer arms as a shorter guy, this wouldn't be as much of an issue.

But he doesn't. Leverage matters at the line of scrimmage.

Don't fail your physics lessons, kids.

All this to say: Bain's short arms very well might damage his draft stock. So much so that some sort of fall down the board shouldn't be surprising. That's, quite obviously, bad news for him and his initial NFL earning potential. Still, I think Bain remains talented enough to overcome his body's limitations. Again, arm length isn't an end-all, be-all type of thing. It's just another data point. The onus is on Bain to show it doesn't matter all that much.

For the time being, it doesn't help that Bain isn't running or working out at the combine:

Bain's shorter arms might turn him into one of this NFL draft class's best pick values. Anyone hoping for Bain to join their team probably views his shorter arms as a gift, given how some professional scouts will likely ding the pass-rusher for them. Bain doesn't have to let this physical attribute define him as a football player.

If I had to make an educated guess, it probably won't.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Rueben Bain Jr.'s short arm measurements make him NFL Draft bargain

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