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INDIANAPOLIS – Rueben Bain Jr. knew this was coming.
Since he was a highly sought-after defensive end recruit, Bain envisioned establishing himself becoming a program-altering presence for his hometown Miami Hurricanes. From there, he would vault into the conversation as a top NFL draft pick.
The vision for his three-year college career has been fulfilled. The Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year propelled Miami all the way to its first national title game appearance in 23 years. And as he attends the NFL scouting combine this week as an expected top-10 pick in the 2026 NFL draft, the latter half of that plan could be coming to fruition.
"I'm kind of looking back on it like, 'Damn, this is actually here. This is actually real,'" Bain said Feb. 25.
What Bain didn't foresee was a hot-button issue being made out of a physical shortcoming: his arm length.
Now, he consensus All-American has become the latest highly ranked lineman to restoke a divisive draft debate.
"I didn't hear it until later in the year, but it kind of surprised me because I never heard it all my life," Bain said about talk of his arm length being a concern, noting that the topic hasn't been broached in any of his meetings at the combine. "I don't give it the time of day, honestly."
But several NFL teams evaluating him might after Bain's arm length was measured at 30 ⅞ inches at the combine on Feb. 26. That figure significantly below the widely held standard of 33 inches for edge rushers, with just three players since 2010 having shorter arms.
And he's not alone in being a special case that will challenge teams' scouting departments this year. Texas A&M edge rusher Cashius Howell, the reigning Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, logged in at just 30 ¼, the shortest figure since at least 2010.
The scrutiny surrounding Bain has swelled just weeks after a Super Bowl matchup that stirred a wider discourse on the matter. New England Patriots left tackle Will Campbell's pervasive struggles to protect Drake Maye had many fans pointing to the attribute he became known for throughout the pre-draft process: 32 ⅝-inch arms, a mark seldom seen by top-10 picks at the position. But a flood of former offensive linemen – including Hall of Famer Joe Thomas, an outspoken critic of the measurement – came to Campbell's defense and fought the narrative, arguing that his lapses against the Seattle Seahawks' pass rush were unrelated to his full extension.
Yet for NFL teams weighing a hefty investment at a premium position, does arm length amount to a sticking point rather than merely a talking point?
"With some guys, it is," Miami Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley said. "Some guys with short arms, they kind of get eaten up, but some guys are so quick where they can get their hands inside first and still disengage. So in an ideal world, would you love to have a guy with long arms? Yeah, absolutely. But I think there's other guys that have shorter arms that are really good edge rushers or really good inside."
To some in the trenches, however, arm length has become the big-man equivalent of the 40-yard dash: a much-hyped metric that seldom captures the reality of their roles.
"If you take a big risk on a guy like a Rueben Bain or a Will Campbell and it doesn't work out, it could come back and bite you," former NFL offensive lineman Justin Pugh, a former first-round pick who began his 11-year NFL career at right tackle despite having 32-inch arms, told USA TODAY Sports. "And if arm length was a factor and a red flag, then all of the sudden, the GM is bad. The scouts are bad. People get fired.
"That's why I think measurables become so big – because people cover their (backs). People will say, 'Well, (the player) hit all the requirements.' Can they play football? Like, Rueben Bain can play football."
Where do NFL teams draw the line on arm length?
For Washington Commanders general manager Adam Peters, the arm length riddle begins with simply getting a precise measurement.
"Every time you measure somebody’s arm, it could be 30, 31, 32, 33 (inches), just depending on who measures it," Peters said.
Ideally, Peters said, a team in need of an edge rusher would want to find Myles Garrett, the long-limbed former No. 1 overall pick who this season set the NFL sack record and earned his second Defensive Player of the Year award. But "there's only one of those guys walking on the face of the earth," so a balancing act ensues in which teams consider how far they're willing to wander from their desired attributes.
Peters, whose team figures to be a prime candidate to take either Bain or another top edge rusher, is one decision-maker looking for equilibrium there.
"In terms of guys with shorter arms, there's a few in this draft that are really, really good players," Peters said.
Several success stories of arm-length outliers have popped up in recent years. Trey Hendrickson of the Cincinnati Bengals, who measured in with 32-inch arms, has held at least a share of the league lead in sacks in two of the last three years. The Green Bay Packers' Micah Parsons, a converted linebacker, didn't let 31 1/2-inch arms stop him from becoming the first player to record at least 12 sacks in each of his first five seasons.
But even with front offices across the league split in their willingness to break from norms, the NFL world at large has made its preferences clear through the draft.
Since at least 2010, no edge rusher who recorded an arm length of 31 inches or below at the combine has posted a double-digit sack season or made the Pro Bowl. And no such players at the position have made the first-round cut.
Of the players who finished top 10 in the NFL in sacks last season, all had recorded arm lengths of at least 32 inches.
Bain, then, might be the ultimate test case for evaluators on their willingness to budge.
"Rueben Bain is an identity pick who plays so hard and so physical," NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said in a conference call last week. "The dimensions aren't gonna be ideal in terms of the length, but there's more that he brings than just what shows up on the stat sheet – just the overall physicality and toughness that he plays with."
For many NFL decision-makers, reconciling on-field performance with a substandard frame entails figuring out how the two actually intertwine on the field. That should mean not focusing on the arm length figure unless problems arise in reviewing a prospect's play, Jeremiah said.
"If you didn't know their arm length and you watched four games on a guy, and you never thought there was an issue with guys getting to his chest or him playing short-armed, then I wouldn't be as concerned about it," Jeremiah said. "But when you have issues of guys getting edged, or you have defensive linemen who can't get to the body of anybody, then it's like, 'OK, I've got some concerns. By the way, what's his arm length?'"
Will Campbell arm length criticism and backlash
When the Patriots selected Campbell No. 4 overall last year and installed him as the starting left tackle, it seemed to end one of the larger consternations of the 2025 draft cycle. The LSU product enjoyed a largely successful rookie campaign, helping the Patriots engineer a record-tying 10-win improvement from the previous season.
But when Campbell returned in Week 18 from a knee injury that sidelined him for four games, trouble followed. The rookie suffered what Patriots personnel chief Eliot Wolf said were three of his four worst games of the entire season in the playoff spotlight, with Maye taking 21 sacks in the postseason – including six in the Super Bowl loss to the Seahawks.
As critiques mounted, so too did references to Campbell's arm length. Wolf, however, mirrored many former NFL offensive linemen in instead pointing to Campbell's lower body, which he said did not appear to have the same strength upon the blocker's return from injury.
Coach Mike Vrabel made clear two days after the Super Bowl that the Patriots were "not moving Will to guard or center or to tight end or anywhere else."
"Everyone talks about the arm length, but he has a set of skills that enable him to play with that arm length," Wolf said of Campbell. "He's really quick out of his stance. He's technically sound. He's adding more and more different pass sets to his tool bag that he can use to combat different rushes. And again, he's 22 years old, and we expect some improvement out of him as well."
Pugh made the transition from right tackle to left guard after his first two pro seasons, but not due to issues posed by his limited reach. A two-time first-team All-Big East left tackle at Syracuse, he regularly sparred with future four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Chandler Jones – whose arms measured more than three inches longer than Pugh's – and still held his own.
More bothersome for Pugh was having to switch sides to the right side to start off his career. Going back to work on the left as a guard allowed him to rediscover his comfort zone, as well as the opportunity to engage rangier defensive linemen more quickly.
As a pro, Pugh never heard his arm length cited in film reviews the same way other facets, such as footwork and punch timing, would surface. Instead, the mission was to be solution-oriented.
"If someone is long-arming and I can't get them with my short arms, then I just chop their arm down," Pugh said. "Get his arm off you. You wouldn't say, 'Your arms are too short – tough luck, tell God to help you out next time.' If you don't block the guy, you're not going to have a job.
"If my arms hurt me so much, why did I play for 11 years? If you can play football, you'll be on the field."
Some teams, however, remain on the hunt for premium traits in whatever form they might come. The Cincinnati Bengals, for instance, started two offensive tackles in Amarius Mims and Orlando Brown Jr. who ranked in the 95th and 79th percentile for arm length, respectively.
"You want guys who play football well, but you want guys who play NFL football well. Those traits are what drive a lot of really great players," Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said Feb. 24. "We do like guys that are big enough, fast enough, strong enough. You have to have those things. You can't just have desire. Desire without any physical traits – you're gonna be doing my job and you're not going to be playing NFL football for us."
Bain's landing spot?
The most telling ruling on Bain's arm length might be made by the Tennessee Titans, who hold the No. 4 pick in April's draft.
With new coach Robert Saleh aboard, the Titans are decidedly in the market for a pass rusher to lead the way up front. Both Saleh and general manager Mike Borgonzi spoke of the importance of length across the board on defense. But Saleh also said Bain's tape was "undeniable." Bain, meanwhile, boasted that he "killed it" in his interview with Tennessee brass – a claim Borgonzi backed him up on.
"He’s an unbelievable football player. He plays with great violence. His football IQ is off the charts,” Saleh said. “You trust that a guy like him and his makeup is going to translate the way it needs to. Now, there’s certain things when you talk to him and listen to him, that he will have to adjust to. All these kids will, but I think he’s going to have a lot of success in this league.”
Tennessee could have stylistically different alternatives available at edge rusher, however, in Texas Tech's David Bailey or Ohio State's Arvell Reese. How the Titans and other teams navigate the potential selection of Bain could shape the arm length discourse for the next few draft classes.
For now, the goal for teams is not to lose perspective when factoring in the consideration.
"I'd have a hard time taking a worse player just because he has long arms," Jeremiah said.
In other words: Don't overreach.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rueben Bain arm length question reignites contentious NFL draft debate