- Rueben Bain Jr. dominates Week 1: His 92.6 overall defensive grade in Week 1 ranked top 12 for all FBS defensive players.
- Draft stock rising: The Miami (FL) junior defensive lineman is top 20 on the PFF big board and could be climbing even higher.
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Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. is already off to a fantastic start in the 2025 college football season. The third-year junior defensive lineman posted a 92.6 overall defensive grade in the Hurricanes’ big home opening win against Notre Dame. Within that overall score, he earned a 90.7 run-defense grade and 82.5 pass-rush grade.
Bain was No. 16 on my initial 2026 big board heading into the college football season. He’s a former four-star recruit from Miami, Florida who committed to the hometown Hurricanes in the 2023 recruiting class. He started 10 games as a true freshman in 2023, earning an 82.2 overall defensive grade, and started nine games the following season, earning a 79.7 overall defensive grade while missing four games due to a calf injury.
Bain has impressed since he stepped on campus, which really matters because when you can not only start but are consistently a highly graded player and difference maker as an underclassman (while typically going up against fourth- and fifth-year players), the chances of you having what it takes to be one of the best in the nation and a potential NFL guy improve.
Despite great production as an underclassman, there has been some hesitation with Bain’s NFL projection, stemming from his measurables. Though we don’t have Bain's official measurements – since there is usually no official measurement for underclassmen, as scouting services don’t get measurements from schools until players get through their junior seasons – Miami lists him at 6-foot-3 and around 275 pounds. For an edge rusher specifically, his height would rank in the 32nd percentile, and his weight would be in the 79th percentile. His build on tape reflects that – good weight in the lower half with shorter height and arm length.
Lack of arm length is generally concerning for the edge position in the NFL. Lack of arm length and long-arm pass rush moves means you have to get closer to offensive tackles in order to make contact and perform a pass rush move, and the closer you are to an offensive lineman, the more power they can generate to get their hands on you and neutralize rush attempts. The physical concerns appear true for Bain, yet they don’t seem to be slowing him down, as he has earned career single-season pass-rush win percentages above 14.0% to go with a 25.0% pass-rush win percentage against Notre Dame to kick off 2025. The reason is a good introduction into his strengths as a prospect, and why he remains a top 20, if not top 10, caliber prospect in the upcoming class.
When a defender has shorter arms as an edge rusher, he has to find another way to “stay clean,” meaning keeping offensive linemen from getting their hands on him. The best way to do this is to master his hand technique. Bain does an excellent job executing two-hand swipes and club combination pass-rush moves with precision and timing to knock offensive tackles’ parry an offensive linemen's strikes. If the linemen can’t get their hands on him, they can’t slow him down.
Next is that Bain appears to be forklift certified – again, not really, but who doesn’t want that? Being 6-foot-3 actually can have a natural advantage when pass rushing, if used correctly. Bain’s consistently low pad level out of his stance allows him to approach offensive tackles (usually much taller than him) with upward motion. When contact is made, he forces linemen up and on their toes or heels instead of fully grounded. This takes away their power.
Finally, we have to highlight Bain’s ability to turn the corner. Because of his weight/size, we’re not talking about bend here, which is a common term you will hear to describe a speedy edge rusher’s ability to dip and corner around a blocker’s outside shoulder with elite flexibility. Bain doesn’t have that kind of flexibility due to his build, but he does an excellent job of “hugging” a tackle’s outside shoulder and hip as he is getting past them to create the shortest distance between him and the quarterback with the fewest amount of steps required to get there. Not many rushers can do that at his size.
As a run defender, his higher weight profile is an advantage with no drawbacks. His positively-to-negatively graded run-defense numbers in 2023 were 17.1% positively graded with just 9.9% negatively graded. The following year, it was 5.7% and 18.6%, and against Notre Dame, it was 4.8% and 33.3%. A small sample size for this year so far, but each of those numbers is going in the right direction, which is impressive.
With Bain's weight nearly 280 pounds, the questions have arisen as to whether or not he might be better as a three-technique defensive tackle in the NFL – trying to have him win consistently with quickness and leverage like Calijah Kancey does with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He is versatile, logging 192 snaps as a three-technique defensive tackle in 2023, but as long as he keeps producing the way he is as an edge rusher, the Hurricanes aren’t going to force him there – and who can blame them? The questions of exactly where he will play in the NFL may continue, but the question of him playing in the NFL at all is clearly already answered.
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