Rueben Bain Described As A One-Man Pass Rush Clinic
June 18th, 2026
Rueben Bain
Joe was very excited, as should all fans of a pass rush, to hear this breakdown of rookie edge rusher Rueben Bain from inside the walls of One Buc Palace.
The gushing praise came from the head man of the Buccaneers defense himself, Todd Bowles.
“I’m extremely grateful,” Bowles said of having Bain. “Just seeing him in person, you know, there’s size and there’s length and there’s speed and there’s everything else. But you also have to look at how a guy rushes the passer.
“It’s a lot in how he rushes the passer; he’s never down the middle. He’s always on the edge. He never wastes steps. He always uses his hands. He understands leverage; he knows when to swim and when to knock him down, when to fight the offensive lineman’s hands. And he’s just a workhorse. But even beyond that, he’s even more of a football player than I thought. He’s extremely bright. He picked up the system very well. He runs games very well. And you can see the possibilities.
Bowles continued on the Sports Day Tampa Bay podcast praising Bain and offered a window of how the Miami Mauler be used. It sounds like Bain will be more exclusively an edge rusher than the Bowles originally projected.
“Him and Kancey on the same side can do some good things because they get off the ball very well and they understand each other. So, just having [Bain] in the spring seeing the possibilities of what he can do, you can’t help but smile.”
Joe is smiling, too. The thought of Bain being a massive upgrade at edge rusher is enough to ease Joe’s anxiety about the how the Bucs will start the season.