The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were widely considered one of the biggest winners of the 2026 NFL Draft, as they managed to pull off arguably the biggest steal of the entire event when they used the No. 15 pick on Miami pass rusher Rueben Bain Jr. when no one thought he would fall that far.
The Bucs should feel extremely lucky that Bain was even there for the taking when he was, as new reports emerged claiming that the Baltimore Ravens were one step away from either taking Bain or trading the No. 14 overall pick to someone who would have.
Mike Silver of The Athletic reported that Baltimore was considering trading down from No. 14 to the late teens. The Ravens had Bain, Penn State guard Vega Ioane (who they ended up taking), and Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq (who went No. 16 to the New York Jets) high on their big board, but the trade ultimately fell through.
Not only were the Ravens this close to taking Bain, but their refusal to trade down may have prevented another team from moving ahead of them to select the Hurricanes' star. Jason Licht and the front office may need to send Eric DeCosta a thank-you card.
Bucs almost lost Rueben Bain Jr. to trade up in NFL Draft
Bain was only available at this point due to concerns about his arm length, as his sub-31-inch arms are such an outlier that it becomes incredibly difficult to find players drafted as high as the first round who still managed to translate into solid performers.
He is a tremendous edge rusher who plays with a violent disposition and is able to defend the run as well as any lineman in this class. Bain should be an immediate starter in Tampa Bay's new-look defense as a rookie, especially considering the lack of great talent in this pass rush room.
Bain will team with a defense-heavy class that includes a possible Lavonte David replacement in Missouri linebacker Josiah Trotter and a cornerback in Miami's Keionte Scott who was picked two rounds later than he should have come off the board. Licht did an amazing job of letting the board fall to him and refusing to pull the trigger on addressing trade-ups.
The Buccaneers needed about five or six 50-50 breaks to go their way in order to ensure they could land Bain, and they managed to do just that.
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