Rueben Bain Responds To Short Arms Critique
April 27th, 2026
Rueben Bain’s arms are three inches shorter than those attached to the torso of YaYa Diaby.
It’s a crisis for an edge rusher, if you ask some NFL talent evaluators.
Does that take frustrate Bain, the Bucs’ first-round draft pick? He answered that question on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
“I wouldn’t even say it’s frustrating because I know the real, because I know what football takes,” Bain said. “And I know what football can do when you actually put your hand in the dirt. So, if people wanna sleep on that, go ahead. They’ll just have to see me when they see me.
Praised for his relentless leg drive, Bain put that on coaches and work ethic. “It is a tremendous respect to my coach and my training and, and it just speaks on my mindset of my motor. I don’t let quote-unquote measureables define who I am,” Bain said.
Bain’s arm length at the NFL Scouting Combine measured 30 7/8 inches. Diaby mesaured 33 7/8 back in 2023.
And for those wondering, last year’s Bucs fourth-round draft pick, edge rusher David Walker, a man officials at One Buc Palace think will stun the NFL with his prowess this season, had arms that measured just 31 7/8 inches at the Combine.
April 27th, 2026 at 9:40 am
Short arms can also be an advantage for a Edge Rusher
April 27th, 2026 at 9:46 am
Who cares
I mean, seriously
The guy has excelled at every level
Let’s f’ing go
April 27th, 2026 at 9:49 am
Time will tell. It would be nice to have a pass rusher that consistently does well and is a perennial pro-bowler. Then the Bucs could move on to other pressing needs.
April 27th, 2026 at 9:54 am
I think this is Mike Tyson’s exact quote, “Every tackle has a plan until Bain punches them in the mouth…with those short arms!”
Right?
If memory serves?
April 27th, 2026 at 9:54 am
“” David Walker, a man officials at One Buc Palace think will stun the NFL with his prowess this season””
Yeah ok. We’ve heard that before haven’t we?
April 27th, 2026 at 9:55 am
If he let’s me have a small wing of his future Davis Island mansion, I’ll help him get things off the high shelves.
April 27th, 2026 at 9:55 am
I liked the Mike Tyson comparison. Shorter arms can mean more power and quicker strikes and that’s how Tyson knocked out all those Giants when he was the most dangerous man alive.
April 27th, 2026 at 9:56 am
So if an edge with long arms keeps them bent, wouldn’t an edge with shorter arms who keeps his arm straight actually have longer arms while rushing?
April 27th, 2026 at 9:57 am
Last 5 winners of Ted Hendricks award for best DE college football:
2021 Aidan Hutchinson Michigan
2022 Caleb Murphy Ferris State
2023 Laiatu Latu UCLA
2024 Donovan Ezeiruaku Boston College
2025 Rueben Bain Jr. Miami (FL)
Murphy was an undrafted FA
Latu has a history of neck injuries that he has overcome but was a 1st round pick of Colts and produced his 2nd year.
Ezeiruaku was a 2nd round pick who was productive last year.
Hutchinson is a stud.
Bain Jr will likely have NFL adjustment period but should be a good player for Bucs long term – definitely an upgrade from Reddick and JTS.
April 27th, 2026 at 10:00 am
he won’t be able to play coverage as well
BLESSING IN DISGUISE
April 27th, 2026 at 10:03 am
plenty of players have proved folks wrong before….wont be the first and it wont be the last
GO BUCS!!!!
April 27th, 2026 at 10:04 am
I can’t wait for his short arm T Rex sack dance!
April 27th, 2026 at 10:05 am
Rueben Bain Jr. will be fine!!!
I look forward to seeing him during the pre-season when it gets here and then the real season when it starts!
April 27th, 2026 at 10:11 am
JTS was even longer at 34 inches….and just how good was he……1st round bust.
April 27th, 2026 at 10:19 am
I have long arms and I’m a terrible pass rusher ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
April 27th, 2026 at 10:19 am
Yaya has long arms, 4.51 speed, 6’3 265 lbs of pure muscles
But he don’t know how to sack the QB
Simeon Rice tried teaching him, it didn’t help
He has the relentless motor, he has the power
But every season he misses 5-6 sacks, because he let up
He need to be more violent, more physical
April 27th, 2026 at 10:20 am
“They’ll have to see me when they see me”
This is frickin awesome! Love this. Welcome to Tampa Bain!!!
April 27th, 2026 at 10:26 am
yes, can we move on from t rex arms. Bain is correct, let him play, please. The same with Trotter who can’t play in coverage. We will see what we will see soon. Bain has excelled well in college , let’s him have his time at the next level.
April 27th, 2026 at 10:32 am
Let’s go B-Rex!
April 27th, 2026 at 10:36 am
If arm length equated to sacks, Manute Bol would’ve been quite an edge rusher.
April 27th, 2026 at 10:39 am
Kid is a relentless rusher!! Pop the tape in. Simple as that. JTS was prototypical right? Bain going be a stud!!
April 27th, 2026 at 10:45 am
Gotta admit, we have the warms for these Miami rookies, the attitude.
Too bad Mike Evans isn’t on the team to welcome them and compete against them. And the reason he’s not hopefully doesn’t prove detrimental to these kids before proper staffing can be arranged in 2027.
April 27th, 2026 at 10:46 am
JTS sucked!!!! Who cares about arms we want prodictuon. We got production!!!!
April 27th, 2026 at 11:12 am
Take two players with equal strength, technique, experience with sacking the QB, height, and drive and maybe 3 inches of arm makes a difference. Do you think 1 1/2 inches in each arm makes up for those other attributes- -horsespit! I would guess they measure from fingertip to fingertip. 1 1/2 longer middle finger makes up for those other qualities? Bain is the best college rusher I have seen maybe ever. He was my pick in the whole draft.
April 27th, 2026 at 11:13 am
I look forward to Wirfs and Bain going at it in practice, though that will be deep into training camp since they can barely touch each other for the next few months. 🙄
I want to know what Wirfs thinks of this guy. I love his Instagram post with the clip from Batman where they pull the hood off of Bane. Classic!
April 27th, 2026 at 11:20 am
Hodad Says:
“So if an edge with long arms keeps them bent, wouldn’t an edge with shorter arms who keeps his arm straight actually have longer arms while rushing?”
Best question in this thread.
April 27th, 2026 at 11:23 am
Micah Parsons 31 1/2 I believe so 5/8” difference. Hard to believe that fractions of an inch matters that much, at least not in this application.
April 27th, 2026 at 11:26 am
They said the same things about Aaron Donald and his size in general. Nobody really knows. I will say that he seems like a guy that is more interested in the game than what comes with the game, ie. money and fame. Just looking at his hair, it isnt lined up or anything. Didnt care about the mirror after getting drafted. Dude is all about the game and I think we need that.
April 27th, 2026 at 11:30 am
Longer arms can also create bicep and pec tears with the out reach finger tip tackles happens all the time his shorter arms has allowed him to use leverage angle to get the job done and the tree trunk legs keep the dive to stay up. GO BUCS!!!
April 27th, 2026 at 12:01 pm
Go read the scouting reports on Tom Brady, Lavonte David, Winfield, etc….all these guys were dinged for some trait that was deemed less than ideal. At the end of the day his ability to produce will be the only measurable that matters.
April 27th, 2026 at 12:19 pm
The arm length fixation is just a dumb correlation. Micah parsons arm length is 31.5 and Bain is 30.875 which is a 1.9% difference. The fixation is just because previous elite rushers happened to have a longer arm length as that’s the only metric. If it was an important measurement then Joe Tryon-Shoyinka with 34 inch arms is 7% longer than Parsons and JTS would have been a godly OLB but we know better.