Potential Bengals Draft Target Posts Historically Low Measurable At 2026 NFL Combine

CINCINNATI — Potential Bengals draft option Rueben Bain measured in at the NFL Combine on Thursday, and his arm length turned some heads for the wrong reasons.

The mauling Miami (FL) product has arms just below 31 inches long (30 inches, 7/8), which is a major historical outlier. Bain has the shortest arms for a fist round pick at edge in the last 20 years. No player with arms less than 31 inches has double-digit sacks in any NFL season for the last 20 seasons.

Bain has the tape to prove he can be a positive outlier amidst this rough measurement. He's clearly not worried about it.

"None of the teams seem to be too concerned with it, as long as I can talk the talk and walk the walk, play with technique, nobody really asks me about it," Bain said at the NFL Scouting Combine. "People keep bringing that up out of nowhere. ... I didn't hear it until later in the year, but it kind of surprised me, because I never heard it all my life. I just ain't giving the time of day, honestly."

Bain has an elite work ethic and the stats to back up his status as the third-best player on the consensus big board from Mock Draft Database and the best edge overall.

Cincinnati has taken swings on short-arm outliers in the past. Joe Goodberry ran down those names on X:

Gio Bernard - 0th Percentile Arms

Carl Lawson - 3rd Percentile Arms

Jalen Davis - 3rd Percentile Arms

Trey Hendrickson - 5th Percentile Arms

Mike Hilton - 5th Percentile Arms

Billy Price - 7th Percentile Wingspan

Hayden Hurst - 9th Percentile Wingspan

Sam Hubbard - 12th Percentile Wingspan

Darqueze Dennard - 12th Percentile Arms

Geno Atkins - 13th Percentile Arms

Ja'Marr Chase - 19th Percentile Arms

Germaine Pratt - 19th Percentile Wingspan

Chidobe Awuzie - 22nd Percentile Arms

Dre Kirkpatrick - 22nd Percentile Arms

BJ Hill - 25th Percentile Wingspan

DJ Turner - 26th Percentile Arms

All in all, Bain checked in with a first percentile arm length and 10th percentile wing span (77.5 inches) among edge rushers historically.

Cincinnati will be getting a massive big board steal if Bain falls to them because of these numbers after he posted elite statistics in 2025, leading the nation in quarterback pressures (83), ranking fifth in Pro Football Focus's sack judgment (12 sacks), and posting the third-best PFF grade overall among edge rushers.

The national champion Indiana Hoosiers had plenty of trouble dealing with those arms and wingspans this past January (five tackles, one sack, three pressures in the title game loss).

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