Teams 'not expecting' this after concerning Rueben Bain Jr. report

While speaking with reporters on Monday, Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes confirmed that he is among NFL executives who have known "for a long, long time," that Miami edge-rusher Rueben Bain Jr. was involved in a fatal vehicular crash when he was a sophomore in March 2024.

Some understandably have wondered how this report surfacing could impact Bain's draft stock. On Monday, NFL reporter Armando Salguero of OutKick suggested that little has changed regarding Bain's short-term future. 

Will Rueben Bain Jr. experience a draft slide after crash report?

"Holmes and the Lions are currently at No. 17 in the first round," Salguero wrote. "They are not expected to have a chance to pick Bain, barring significant new revelations on the player before draft night on April 23 that would lower his draft stock. ...Teams beyond the top 10 in the draft probably are not expecting Bain to be on the board when they select."

The incident ultimately resulted in the death of one of Bain's passengers. He was cited for careless driving, but that charge was later dismissed.

It was previously said that arm-length concerns could cause Bain to slide into the teens of the draft-pick order. However, ESPN's Jordan Reid listed Bain as the seventh-best overall prospect in this year's class for a piece published on Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, Austin Mock of The Athletic ranked Bain as the draft's eighth-best player. 

How NFL teams learned about Rueben Bain Jr. before the public

According to Trey Wallace of OutKick, Bain was again cited for careless driving in the fall of 2025. That case was later dismissed because of a "defective citation."

Salguero explained why such revelations won't shock teams heading into the opening night of the draft. 

"All teams have security departments," Salguero noted, "and almost all staff those with former law enforcement officers, from former FBI agents to others. Those are tasked with doing background checks and writing reports on all the players the team's scouting department identifies as possible draft picks. And while sometimes those investigations don't always identify every possible red flag in a prospect's history, the sense is the Bain accidents didn't surprise many, if any, NFL teams."

It remains to be seen if anything new will be learned about Bain before draft picks start getting announced on the fourth Thursday of April.