Use of Rueben Bain questioned.
Back in this spring’s draft, the Joe typing here was one of the very few who was not popping champagne bottles over the Bucs selecting the Miami Mauler, Rueben Bain, with the No. 15 pick.
The main crux was KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles’ history with developing edge rushers. Joe feared at the time Bain would be ruined and that Bain couldn’t have gone to a worse situation.
Not a whole lot has changed for Joe. (Joe wanted the Bucs to pick tight end Kenyon Sadiq — given how Sadiq has looked and how Bucs offensive coordinator Zac Robinson loves to target tight ends come hell or high water, that wouldn’t have been a dumb pick.)
Joe really does believe Bain is that talented and could be the next Warren Sapp. But Joe always thought Bain was best as a defensive end in a 43 defense or if he had to play in a 34 defense, play with his hand in the ground, maybe even a defensive tackle.
As we know, Bain is playing standing up. Thus far, the results have been very underwhelming. Bain finally got his first sack this past Sunday against Pittsburgh.
Over on YouTube, there is an NFL analyst by the name of Marcus Whitman. He has over 100,000 followers. Joe can’t find anywhere what his qualifications are. If he played anywhere or if he is a data analyst.
Joe figures if this guy has that size of a following, he must not be a dumbarse.
Whitman admitted he gets triggered watching Bain with the Bucs. Whitman is of the mind Bain could be getting so much more production if he was used differently. In short, it doesn’t appear that Whitman is a fan of Bowles’ philosophy on using edge rushers.
Imagine that, someone questions how Bowles uses or doesn’t use a talented edge rusher.
Given Bowles’ recent comments that sacks are pretty much trivial if not useless and don’t win games — don’t tell that to Jalen Ramsey! — Joe is starting to wonder why the Bucs drafted Bain in the first place and hand him over to a guy to develop him who doesn’t care about sacks.
That would be like handing a five-star high school quarterback prospect over to Woody Hayes to develop his arm, a guy who was famous for mocking the forward pass saying, “Only three things can happen when you throw the ball and two are bad.”
Rueben Bain's usage in Todd Bowles' defense is extremely frustrating. It's not that he can't line up wide and play a stand up Wide 9 / 7-Tech… But all game??
Tighten these splits and let him get some reps as a 4i on true passing downs and he's going to make a bigger impact.…