Bucs Choose DE Rueben Bain Jr. At 15

Tampa Bay will pair the former Hurricane standout with YaYa Diaby, who is heading into a contract year. Diaby has had moderate pass rush success, totaling 19.0 sacks over his first three years of NFL play. He’s been part of a team-wide effort to get after the quarterback after the past few years, splitting the responsibility with Calijah Kancey and Vita Vea along the defensive line.

To that point, the Buccaneers couldn’t have asked for a better player to fall to them at this point in the draft to contribute to this team-wide pass rush effort. Bain is the epitome of such play, as evidenced during his three years in Coral Gables. As a true freshman, when teammate and fellow first-round pick Akheem Mesidor went down with injury, Bain stepped in as a starter and filled a giant role on the Hurricanes defense. Without lining up directly over center, Bain played all over the defensive line for Miami, leading the team with 7.5 sacks and finishing second with 12.5 tackles for loss.

Miami dedicated Bain more consistently to the outside after that. After an injury-limited sophomore campaign, Bain got to pair with Mesidor when both were healthy for the first time last year, and the two terrorized teams all through the Hurricanes’ College Football Playoff run to the national title game. Bain’s addition to the Tampa Bay pass rush should excite Buccaneers fans, as Bain tends to bring success to the pass rushers around him as they benefit from the attention opposing offensive lines will pay to Bain.

A pair of controversies threatened Bain’s draft status and future NFL career as a short arm-length measurement as the NFL Scouting Combine and an unfortunate driving accident from two years ago made frequent headlines over the last month of the pre-draft process. By most accounts, NFL teams took much less stock into Bain’s arm measurements than draft pundits, and they had reportedly been made aware of the driving accident story months before it broke.

Whether these issues contributed to Bain falling out of the top 10 to No. 15 or if it was simply a run of tackles and series of trades that delayed his name getting called no longer matters Bain will head up Alligator Alley to continue his pro ball in-state. The Buccaneers will now have to figure out how to use Bain in their base 3-4 front, as an outside linebacker opposite Diaby or a versatile in-line defensive end next to Vea, Kancey, A’Shawn Robinson, and former Hurricane Elijah Roberts.