Will the Baltimore Ravens Regret Passing on Rueben Bain Jr.?

There is no denying that the Baltimore Ravens got one of the top prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft by taking Penn State standout Olaivavega Ioane at No. 14 overall to further the fortification of the interior of their offensive line after they had one of the worst guard tandems in the league last year.

It was the pick that the vast majority of local and national pundits and analysts alike projected that they'd make, and for good reason. The former Nittany Lion is a plug-and-play starter who has perennial Pro Bowl and possibly even All Pro potential who plays with physical edge and dominance that the Ravens covet in their offensive linemen.

"That would be the hope. That would be the goal," DeCosta said. "I firmly believe that [Vega] is going to be a really, really good player with us for the next five years and hopefully longer than that."

However, a lot of the talk coming out opening night, as it pertains to their selection, will be centered around who they passed on to take Ioane and ended up coming off the board one pick after him.

For the second time in five years, the rest of the league allowed a what was believed to be a consensus top 10 pick fall to them at the exact same spot for having less-than-ideal traits or measurables. This time around, it was University of Miami edge defender Rueben Bain Jr., but instead of making them pay for letting it happen again, they went with the chalk pick and one that still makes the team exponentially better.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn't hesitate to turn in the card and stop the former Hurricane's fall at No. 15 overall, getting what could prove to be one of, if not the biggest, steals of the entire draft. Bain Jr. was arguably the most disruptive defender in the entire nation last season, culminating in First Team All American, All ACC and ACC Defensive Player of the Year honors after helping lead his team to the college football national title game against Indiana.

In his post-first-round press conference, Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta was asked if he considered taking Bain Jr. over Ioane and double down on his belief that they made the right choice while still speaking glowingly about him.

"He's a great player too," DeCosta said. "[He] would've made a great Raven. Those are the tough decisions that we have to make but in the end, I really feel like we got a guy that really fits us personality wise and ability wise and just everything that we want our guys to be, I think Vega epitomizes that and we're excited to see what he can do."

Will this decision come back to bite Baltimore in the long-run?

Baltimore Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta at Jesse Minter’s press conference at Under Armour Performance Center. — Jan 29, 2026; Owings Mills, MD, USA; Eric DeCosta at Jesse Minter’s press conference at Under Armour Performance Center. Mandatory Credit: Lexi Thompson-Imagn Images | Lexi Thompson-Imagn Images

Hamilton fell outside of the top 10 picks of the 2022 NFL Draft due to a lack of positional value as a safety and because he ran a slower-than-expected time in the 40-yard dash at the Scouting Combine during the pre-draft process.

The only conceivable reason Bain Jr., who plays a premium position at an elite level, didn't hear his name called in the top 10, let alone the top five of this year's class as the first non-quarterback taken, was because he falls into an historical outlier when it comes to his length. His arms measure in at 30 7/8-inches, which falls into the first percentile among all edge rushers since 2010.

A team can never go wrong when it comes to investing in the protection of their franchise quarterback, especially when they have a two-time MVP like Lamar Jackson coming off the most injury-riddled season of his career. However, there's the matter of positional value and whether taking the best guard was the wiser move over taking arguably the top pass rusher and overall defensive disruptor in the class.

If the Ravens have a top 10 offense in 2026 with a dominant rushing attack and Jackson stays upright much more consistently than he did last year as a result of Ioane's presence and Bain has a solid-to-stellar season, this decision won't be second-guessed.

No one questioned whether the Ravens made the wrong move by spending a first-round pick on Tyler Linderbaum when he was inserted as the starting center from Day 1 as a rookie and went on to make three Pro Bowls in his first four years. But when it came time to exercise his fifth-year option, the Ravens were essentially forced to decline it because the figure would've reset the top of the center market by a significant margin.

In the end, Linderbaum still wound up shattering the center market thanks to the desperation of the Las Vegas Raiders, leaving the Ravens with three glaring holes on their offensive line, all of which were along the interior. DeCosta pointed out that the top of the offensive guard market is beginning to "mirror" that of tackles which could factor into future fifth-year option decisions, making them more palatable for teams and when it comes to their future first-rounders.

"We saw this year, the center market trying to catch up," DeCosta said. "I think teams [and] people are realizing that these offensive linemen are special athletes who do very unique things. They're hard to find. And so, that market has grown and changed, and we'll adjust with it."

They've now addressed all three of those spots with the signings of veterans John Simpson and Danny Pinter and now the drafting of Ioane with likelihood of adding another competitor at center later on the next two days of the draft.

In four years from now, unless their first-rounder hits his ceiling on his rookie deal or if Bain Jr. absolutely flops, which seems highly unlikely barring injury, this decision could get questioned if the opposite scenarios come to pass.

On the other hand, if the Ravens win or at least make it to a Super Bowl or two during that same span and Ioane and the rest of the offensive line are a big reason why, positional value and future contract dilemmas be damned and DeCosta reiterated as much.

"There are obviously challenges with the way that that [the] offensive line [and] the fifth-year option is all kind of encompassed with tackles, guards and centers, but I'm not going to worry about that today," DeCosta said. "That's something for me to worry about three years from now."

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