New Bucs edge Rueben Bain poses with NFL strongman Roger Goodell Thursday night in Pittsburgh.

Get your virus shots up to date. Rueben Bain said he’s contagious.

No, not that way. He doesn’t have The Sickness. But last night in a Zoom call from Pittsburgh, the new Bucs rookie edge rusher Rueben Bain said he’s sort of the Baker Mayfield of the defense.

What does Joe mean? Mayfield’s play is contagious because he’s such a battler. That’s what Bain said he is. All gas; no brakes.

“My motor,” Bain said when he was asked about his best trait. “I feel like my motor and my mindset is contagious because when people see me, [see] how I play and how I care about the game of football, it kind of spreads off on other people.

“I actually have proof of that, and that’s not me just talking. That’s from high school all the way up into college.”

Whenever Joe hears anyone refer to a player as having “a motor,” Joe immediately thinks of Adrian Clayborn, the Bucs’ 2011 first-round pick edge rusher. That’s all anyone said about Clayborn, from black-listed coach Brian Billick to any Bucs fan at the neighborhood bar.

“He has a motor!”

Well, the 2026 Bucs defense needs to be infected by guys with attitudes. And by all accounts, Bain plays one.

(Clayborn had 7.5 sacks as a rookie and then blew out his knee early in his second season. He was never the same.)

Last year the Bucs’ defense played with a quitting too often. Joe hopes Bain and the others added to the roster in free agency — and the players drafted today and Saturday, are the vaccine this Bucs team needs to be feared again on defense.

If you haven't gotten a text response from Rueben Bain tonight, now you know why | @AKinkhabwala pic.twitter.com/nLR1sp0b9y

— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) April 24, 2026