Greg Olsen defends Rueben Bain Jr.'s draft stock, urging teams to look beyond arm length and focus on the undeniable impact on the field.
The NFL Draft is nearly 24 hours away, marking a significant moment for several former Miami Hurricanes prospects, including Rueben Bain Jr. The star edge rusher had an All-American season: 54 total tackles, 30 solos and 24 assists, 15.5 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks, two passes defended, a forced fumble, a pass broken up, and an interception in the home opener against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
The Miami native earned numerous other accolades, including ACC Defensive Player of the Year, First Team All-ACC, and the Ted Hendricks Award winner. He proved to be a dominant force at the line of scrimmage, but there have been murmurs about a shortage of arm length. The highly-touted prospect listed at 30 7/8 inches, which is about 2.6 inches short of the average for an NFL edge rusher.
Bain Jr. is still projected to be an early first-round selection, but the measurement concerns could linger, causing a minor slippage. However, in a Wednesday episode of the UpAndAdamsShow hosted by Kay Adams, former Hurricanes tight end and three-time NFL Pro Bowler Greg Olsen came to his defense.
“I think we see [measurable talks] every year,” he said. “I think it really hits its fever pitch leading up to the draft. The draft is a potential type of event. We’re drafting guys, not necessarily where they are now, but how do we visualize them playing in our organization, playing on our defense in Rueben’s case. There is that projection element to it where you start looking into 5-10-5 and he vertical jumped half an inch shorter than we thought he should. You can really drive yourself crazy nowadays with the amount of metrics that we can evaluate these guys with. At the end of the day, the day after you take a Rueben Bain in the draft and you put him out there at a rookie camp or at a veteran mini camp, you just see that nobody can block him, it doesn’t matter his arms are an inch or two short because when he locks you out in the gap, you can’t move him.”
Olsen compared the situation to former Los Angeles Rams’ Aaron Donald, who was a couple of inches short of the average height for an NFL defensive tackle, listed at 6-1. He had a notorious career in the league, a consensus lock to be a Pro Football Hall of Famer.
Bain Jr. has been linked to several organizations, most notably the Kansas City Chiefs, who currently own the ninth pick in the first round. He will be in attendance live at the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The 21-year-old will walk the stage, looking to prove the short-arm narrative wrong.
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