The Kansas City Chiefs were widely connected to Rueben Bain Jr. before the draft, but he ended up being their Plan B.
The Kansas City Chiefs had a fascinating draft a couple of weeks ago, and the key move was trading up to get cornerback Mansoor Delane with the No. 6 pick. The Chiefs had to trade up to get him, though, and they gave up a lot of draft capital to do it, which has led to a lot of speculation about what exactly was going on just before the deal was made.
New information about this situation emerged in a report from Connor Byrne of ProFootballRumors.com, who referenced reporting from Jeremy Fowler of ESPN that the Chiefs would have considered Miami defensive end Rueben Bain Jr. as their fallback Plan B option if another team had taken Bain ahead of them.
The Chiefs were connected strongly to Bain in multiple reports based on his numbers in Miami, where he earned All-America honors while accumulating 83 pressures, 54 tackles, 15.5 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks over 16 games in his final year with the Hurricanes.
But Bain was also widely criticized for his short arm length based on the standard measurables for the position, which made it unclear exactly where he would go. Bain ended up dropping to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who took Bain with the No. 15 pick of the draft.
Once the Chiefs had Delane locked up, their strategy shifted, and they wound up taking Peter Woods of Clemson with their second first round pick. That was an interesting shift given that Woods was considered an underachiever at Clemson, and the Tigers defense wasn’t what it’s been in the past last season.
The Chiefs selected R Thomas Mason as their new edge rusher with their second round pick, but Mason isn’t considered a finished product at all. He’s considered a freakish athlete, but at this point he’s basically a specialist who will mostly be used on third downs and in obvious passing situations this season.
The hope is that these moves can unleash defensive end George Karlaftis and keep tackle Chris Jones from having to deal with constant double teams, but taking Bain would have been a much more direct route to addressing the pass rush. It was a key issue for Kansas City, especially when the Chief defense couldn’t get off the field in key moments in many games.
Bain hasn’t said much about this so far, but the odds are good he will at some point. He was often defiant in pre-draft interviews about his arm length, and there’s a good chance he’ll be one of those “chip on the shoulder” players who holds a grudge.