Rueben Bain Described As A One-Man Pass Rush Clinic
June 18th, 2026
Rueben Bain
Joe was very excited, as should all fans of a pass rush, to hear this breakdown of rookie edge rusher Rueben Bain from inside the walls of One Buc Palace.
The gushing praise came from the head man of the Buccaneers defense himself, Todd Bowles.
“I’m extremely grateful,” Bowles said of having Bain. “Just seeing him in person, you know, there’s size and there’s length and there’s speed and there’s everything else. But you also have to look at how a guy rushes the passer.
“It’s a lot in how he rushes the passer; he’s never down the middle. He’s always on the edge. He never wastes steps. He always uses his hands. He understands leverage; he knows when to swim and when to knock him down, when to fight the offensive lineman’s hands. And he’s just a workhorse. But even beyond that, he’s even more of a football player than I thought. He’s extremely bright. He picked up the system very well. He runs games very well. And you can see the possibilities.
Bowles continued on the Sports Day Tampa Bay podcast praising Bain and offered a window of how the Miami Mauler be used. It sounds like Bain will be more exclusively an edge rusher than the Bowles originally projected.
“Him and Kancey on the same side can do some good things because they get off the ball very well and they understand each other. So, just having [Bain] in the spring seeing the possibilities of what he can do, you can’t help but smile.”
Joe is smiling, too. The thought of Bain being a massive upgrade at edge rusher is enough to ease Joe’s anxiety about the how the Bucs will start the season.
June 18th, 2026 at 10:43 am
I still like the idea of using Bain inside on obvious passing downs so we can use different combinations of pass rushers. Dude is a bad ass.
June 18th, 2026 at 10:48 am
Unusual to read that Bowles is gushing over a player when no pads have been worn yet. I’ve got to assume Bain is really special.
June 18th, 2026 at 10:49 am
It’s just more coaching hype until we see what he’s got when the real bullets start to fly. I learned my lesson years ago about rookie players who have never played a down in the NFL and get praise from Bowles and Licht.
June 18th, 2026 at 10:52 am
Smiling here too. But tempering it a little bit because Jason Licht and Co. have referred ad nauseam to Emeka wearing down through the season because his final college season being extended due to CFP, then the combine, Draft prep, etc. and then entering into a long NFL season.
Well Bain Jr. – outside of position – is essentially in the exact situation as Emeka was last season that Jason alluded to as the cause for Emeka’s dropoff the last half of the year.
Especially considering the reports of Bain Jr being a natural, being more like 3rd or 4th year player instead of a rookie and picking up the system quickly (sounds a lot like Emeka to start his rookie year), he’s gonna see playing time right away.
But I’m loving everything I’m hearing so far and I hope I’m wrong on my reason for tempering expectation this season!
June 18th, 2026 at 10:53 am
I picture the sardonic smile on Bowles’s face when saying you can see the possibilities.’
June 18th, 2026 at 10:55 am
No reason to be anxious about how we’ll start the season. We’re gonna start out very well.
I foresee our pass rush mauling Cincinnati in the first game.
Now the middle of the season and end – lots to be anxious about there.
June 18th, 2026 at 11:01 am
Very sad day.. Joe Trying Shrinkage has retired
June 18th, 2026 at 11:05 am
You can see his influence on Yaya in the cut ups the team and reporters have posted of the team at practice. Diaby is looking more handsy, in a good way not the creepy way
June 18th, 2026 at 11:08 am
Licht is one of the best drafting GMs in the league – but sometimes its better to be lucky than good.
The Bucs are SOOOO fortunate that Bain fell to #15 this year and that we FINALLY have managed to draft a young edge rusher with premium level talent (and attitude!).
Jason does deserve a lot of credit though for making the right call by NOT trading up for Bain – once he fell to within striking distance at 11 or 12. Licht admitted he was very tempted to do just that – but his intuition said don’t and he went with it – with breath held and fingers crossed while rubbing the fur clean off of his lucky rabbit’s foot…..
The result was we got Bain at 15 and held on to the 3rd and 4th round picks it would have cost to move up. So Ted Hurst and Keionte Scott are like free bonus premium picks this year – and both are likely to help this team quite a bit even as rookies…..
I guess its actually best to be lucky AND good which is how this year’s draft fell for the Bucs and their drafting wizard of a GM.
June 18th, 2026 at 11:09 am
Bucs may have had him in their top five prospects, and it is good to hear they are pleased with him so far. I am just hoping Bowles just lets him hunt and not drop.
June 18th, 2026 at 11:09 am
There are no shortage of ways for Twocoach to utterly confuse and paralyze the prized rookie. It’s going to make 2025 look like great football!
June 18th, 2026 at 11:26 am
After the collapse last year, I’m back to my old way of believin’ about the Bucs. Missouri has it right. “Show me.” I hope the kid is mean and nasty, and plays with a tenacity not seen in the defense since the last Super Bowl, but I’m not going to believe it until I see it. i do respect Bain for keeping his head down and letting his play do the talking. He carries himself like a pot that’s just about to boil over, lots of pent up energy, and kind of reminds me of Suh in that way. Will that translate into an elevated career for the rookie? We will know soon enough.
June 18th, 2026 at 11:43 am
I’m cautiously optimistic. He seems like a beast but I’m not confident he’ll be used to his strengths consistently. We’ll see but if I see him in coverage on a passing down I’m gonna puke.
June 18th, 2026 at 11:53 am
But don’t have dinner with the guy unless you agree in advance who’s paying for it because with his short arms, when the check comes, you’ll be stuck paying the bill.
I hear that his arms don’t even come down past his belly button.
Someone said his car seat has to be moved all the way to the front and then he still has trouble reaching the steering wheel.
I heard he never got called on in school because no one could see him raising his hand.
And yet they still drafted this guy with the shortest arms in the history of sports. Not just football.
June 18th, 2026 at 11:55 am
That’s good that he can rush the passer, but how is he dropping into coverage??
(just kidding with that question) 😉
If he can play as Bowles and others have described, he’ll have really been a steal as the 15th overall pick in the draft.
Many truly great pass rushers (including Sapp) didn’t do much in their rookie year, so I don’t know what to expect from Bain this season. But I’m looking forward to finding out.
June 18th, 2026 at 12:07 pm
A least one Joe has been an Akim Muhammad skeptic seeing as how his 12 sacks in 2025 were as a second string player.
recently had a clip of all 12 of Muhammad’s sacks from 2025. A few of the sacks were from immediate one-on-one wins. But, mostly, they were from meeting in the middle and pursuit.
With Bane and Kancey penetrating quickly, and with Vea and Robinson plugging the middle and pushing the pocket, Diaby and Mohammad should have a lot of shots at QBs being driven into their clutches.
Bain’s value will likely be reflected not just in his own sack total, but in the sacks he creates for “second stringers”.
Having a “second stringer” who capitalizes on those opportunities is a game changer in comparison to the guys the Bucs have had who couldn’t finish in those situations.
Even if Bain is so great that he could win ono-on-one and sack the QB every play, it would be an incompetent OC who failed to put extra bodies on him, and that is when it becomes a team effort where quality role players who can finish prove their worth. Muhammad and Trotter and Scott look like players who can finish what Bain starts.
June 18th, 2026 at 12:15 pm
Will he get double digit sacks his rookie year?
I think so!
June 18th, 2026 at 12:26 pm
I hear his arms are so short, when he waves all you see is his shoulder moving.
June 18th, 2026 at 12:48 pm
Just keep him in rush mode or right at the line….please DO NOT DROP HIM IN COVERAGE!!!
June 18th, 2026 at 12:49 pm
And next up, sign Big V!
June 18th, 2026 at 1:36 pm
So what is the over under on Bucs fans passing out at the first game because of heat stroke because they have “Bain” mask on?
June 18th, 2026 at 1:47 pm
Bowles has been in the league a long time. He knows what he’s seeing with his own two eyes. Bain is going to be a problem for opposing offenses.
June 18th, 2026 at 1:49 pm
Bain Jr Kancey Vita an Yaya or you can throw AQM in the Middle for Vita for a Rush Group Bucs finally have a Damn good Group of Rushers an DLine again
June 18th, 2026 at 1:50 pm
I think they should place Bain at outside corner due to playing 5D chess…
Or something…
June 18th, 2026 at 2:10 pm
Instead of mindless over the top lemming speak, let’s pump the brakes a little.
The guy has done nothing in the NFL yet. The regular season is now less than three months away.
Our win-loss record will not be effected positively or negatively no matter what your opinion is in mid June.
Past is prologue. Bowles past is quite bleak.
June 18th, 2026 at 2:46 pm
Yeah Lynchburg, no talking or speculation or excitement for your team in the off season! And get off my lawn while you are at it!!!!
June 18th, 2026 at 2:47 pm
LynchMob50 with more truth. Thank you. Pom poms are forgetting, Bowles doesn’t care about sacks from the edge because he’s so smart, he asks them to do “other things” and we have seen how successful that turns out.
3rd and 28
4th and 14
June 18th, 2026 at 3:02 pm
ModHairKen Says:
June 18th, 2026 at 11:53 am
But don’t have dinner with the guy unless you agree in advance who’s paying for it because with his short arms, when the check comes, you’ll be stuck paying the bill.
I hear that his arms don’t even come down past his belly button.
Someone said his car seat has to be moved all the way to the front and then he still has trouble reaching the steering wheel.
I heard he never got called on in school because no one could see him raising his hand.
And yet they still drafted this guy with the shortest arms in the history of sports. Not just football.
Just like your buddies lynchmob and Evans miserable people.it’s a shame that Joe even gives you ladies a platform to swing your purses.
June 18th, 2026 at 3:17 pm
Hopefully, they are smart enough not to overwork the rookie. They picked up enough other pieces to run a rotation. Rookie wall can be avoided with proper management. He doesn’t need to be in there for 700 plays.
June 18th, 2026 at 3:25 pm
Thanks Joe, GREAT article and got me PUMPED UP for the season, if healthy we should be solid. I really love Robinson as well, him and Vea is a nasty nasty combo.
June 18th, 2026 at 3:25 pm
Jason Taylor did a great job with Bain and Mesidor. Too bad the cheap Glazers wouldn’t bring Taylor here.
June 18th, 2026 at 4:16 pm
3.28, we understand that to be a true troll you must not only constantly be contrarian, you must also be ceaselessly negative. So kudos. In the service of what, however? It’s the off-season. All indications are we had a pretty decent draft. We currently have as good a chance of making the playoffs as every other team. We’ve got a QB in the top half of 32. We have an o-line that should be top 10 or better when healthy. More weapons on the offense. We lost an icon, two of them actually, but both aging and clearly on the downside of their career. We’ve replaced them with young talent. No one’s in love with the coach, but he’s been to the playoffs a few times and won a super bowl as a coordinator of a suffocating defense. One that had the personnel to be suffocating. We may be entering that area again. And so again, it’s the off-season. Like most fans, we tend to try to look at it as glass half full. I guess I wonder why you choose to be nothing but negative. Seriously. You can hold all the same biases and still have some iota of optimism. It’s to the point where I can’t imagine you’re even a fan of the team. But yet here you are, day after day, basically copying and pasting the same crapola. You must be fun at parties.