They say scouting the NFL draft is like picking a favorite ice cream flavor, but perhaps it should be about compared to types of sandwiches. Consensuses begin to build and at the end of the day it comes down to preferences for scouts. For teams like the Dallas Cowboys who are hunting a wide range of defensive players, it could very well come down to preferences.
Take a quick poll of the classroom and one might be hard-pressed to find people who likes a Rueben sandwich; a grilled meal that combines corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and Thousand Island dressing on rye bread is to bound to make some enemies. Like his sandwich namesake, Miami pass rusher Rueben Bain has become quite the controversial figure among the draft community, but his flavor profile might meet the Cowboys’ redeveloped taste buds.
On film Bain is an elite sandwich as a pass rusher.
His technical skills stand out as he wins battle after battle a variety of ways. Yet the all-world pass rusher is lacking many of the physical trait and athletic numbers many GMs consider a requirement at the next level. Bain’s arm length raised flags everywhere at the NFL Combine last month in Indianapolis. It’s not that sub-31-inch arms is a difficult obstacle to overcome, it’s that the draft community has never seen it overcome on a blue-chip level. He didn’t subject himself to much of the athletic testing and he doubled down on all of that at his pro day.
Bain didn’t want to run the 40 or subject himself to the three-cone at his pro day. He didn’t test his vertical or broad jump either. He just did position drills as he’s largely resting on his laurels from the 2025 season.
It’s a controversial situation for Bain and some people are sure to be turned off by the ingredients of his athletic profile.
Bain didn’t measure today, only weight.
Sticking with Combine #’s (30 7/8″ arms, 77 1/2″ wing, 9 1/8″ hand) https://t.co/AgoPlX1HZH
— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) March 23, 2026
Independently Bain’s ingredients are about as appetizing as Speedo day at the senior citizen community pool. But together they make a sandwich that just seems to work. While projecting for the NFL is much different from watching and grading college tape, Bain’s track record is elite and whatever the ingredients he brings, he finds a way to make it work as a total package. He’s a physical outlier with film that doesn’t match the measurements. Some see red flags and impossible leaps while others see the exception to the rule and someone too good to fail.
With the stakes so high, some GMs are bound to get cold feet and that’s how the best pass rusher in the draft falls all the way to the Cowboys at 12. Even if scouting departments like his film, sandwiches with less polarizing ingredients like a spicy chicken, classic club and French dip could very well get the nod instead. They check all the boxes and don’t come with the risks of a sandwich like a Rueben.
Picking the exception to the rule in the top 10 is a great way for a GM to get fired. Rules are rules for a reason and if a player has physical limitations and/or questions that have never been overcome, even elite film must come with an asterisk.
But for those who trust the film and are willing to gamble on tough projectability calculations, he could be a massive bargain who slips through the cracks.
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This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Cowboys hope Rueben Bain doesn’t meet tastes of top 10 draft teams
