A strong start in his first training camp had some wondering if edge rusher Rueben Bain would make teams — including the Los Angeles Rams — regret letting him fall
to the Buccaneers at pick 15. The answer through five weeks is a remarkably resounding ‘no’ because the Bucs have not been able to hide Bain on the bench. Through the three games he’s been active for this season, Bain has played in 111 snaps and made three tackles, zero sacks or QB hits, and between zero to four pressures.Thursday night
against the Cowboys, Bain made his first run tackle of his career.
Several names have been thrown around as “better options” than Ty Simpson, the quarterback who L.A. selected at pick 13 and who has yet to be active for an NFL game, including Bain, Makai Lemon, and Kenyon Sadiq. Well, to date the only one of those players who has even had a single good game this season is Sadiq, and now the tight end is coming off of his worst game of 2026.
Bain has a 7-10% pressure rate
Going into Week 5, Next Gen Stats noted that Bain had a “9.8% pressure rate”, although pressures varies between site to site. After all these years, experts still can’t agree when a defender is “pressuring” a quarterback or not.
Nobody has said how many pressures Bain had during his 35 snaps against Dallas on Thursday — a surprising win for the Bucs, their first of the season — but if he had zero then his rate would drop down to 7%. Next Gen Stats had him around 100th in pressure rate:
“Rueben Bain Jr. has generated four pressures and a 9.8% pressure rate this season, tied for 80th-highest among 123 edge rushers with at least 25 pass rushes.
Bain has generated one quick pressure, and his average time to pressure of 3.35 is the 29th-longest among the same group of players. Bain is also the only Buccaneers edge rusher who has yet to record a run stop (run tackle that results in a negative play for the offense).“
According to Pro-Football-Reference, they still have Bain down for zero pressures in 2026.
Why this matters already
Nobody was arguing that the Rams should draft a player for a long-term benefit, as the team was thinking when they selected Simpson. The entire point of the non-Simpson argument was simple:
“Pick someone who can help you NOW!”
Sean McVay argued after the draft that the Rams would have drafted someone else if they thought that player could help them win a Super Bowl in 2026. On Bussin’ with the Boys he said:
“If drafting them would’ve ensured that we’re going to show at SoFi Stadium next year … I’d say sign me up. We’re taking that guy.”
You can’t make a case right now that Bain or Lemon would do that.
Through four games, Lemon is one of the least productive receivers in the NFL, catching 10 passes for 65 yards. Next Gen Stats says that Lemon has the third-lowest yards per route of any receiver in the NFL who has a minimum of 75 routes (Lemon has 65 yards on 108 routes).
And Sadiq had seven catches for 105 yards with a touchdown against the Lions two weeks ago. That’s 75% of Sadiq’s season production in one game and it came against the Lions. Last week against the Bears, the Jets’ rookie had zero catches on four targets.
Again, these are all players who could have bright futures. That’s not the point being argued. It’s whether or not they have a bright present.
And you could make the argument that the Rams also could have drafted guard Vega Ione, safety Dillon Thieneman, defensive tackle Caleb Banks, or someone else who might have slightly more present day value. And you might even be right!
But Bain? Lemon?
Are they helping McVay “get to the show” this year?
I think Ty Simpson is doing more for McVay’s health than any other rookies because at least he’s not the bane of his existence on the field like some of these other players would have been.
