So, about Reuben Bain Jr. and his T-Rex arms…

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**Bullock’s Film Room** (subscription)

NFL Draft Profile: Edge Rusher Rueben Bain Jr.

One of the most polarizing prospects in this draft class is Miami defensive end Rueben Bain Jr. Most people that watch his film will agree it’s very good, but he has one potential fatal flaw that he has no real control over. In recent years, the arm length debate has been growing and growing among the NFL fans, media and even teams. Defensive ends and offensive tackles come under the most scrutiny and at those spots in particular, some teams have certain thresholds that they like to see. Teams typically like to see at least 33-inch arms for defensive ends. At the NFL combine, Bain’s arms measured in at just under 31 inches. Now, it must be said that there were lots of questions about the combine measurement process and just about every prospect at the combine did measure longer at their pro day, but this is the data we have available to us. So, why does arm length matter? Well, the battle between an edge rusher and offensive tackle can often come down to hand fighting techniques. If you have longer arms and therefore a longer reach, that gives you an advantage. You might think that the difference between 31-inch arms and 33-inch arms is minimal, but there are stats out there that suggest that very few edge rushers with arms under 32 inches have much of an impact in the NFL. So Bain would be a significant outlier if he does become successful in the NFL. That’s what NFL teams have to balance out here. How confident are they that Bain can overcome the arm length issue and break the trend of decades of NFL data to be that outlier? That feels like a big ask… at least until you turn on the film and watch him go to work. As a pass rusher, Bain has a very polished set of pass rush moves, which he has likely had to learn to enable him to negate the arm length disadvantage he has. These moves enable him to win hand fights despite his lack of length and beat offensive tackles on the edge. One of his best moves is his cross chop move. I’ve watched him throw this cross chop move in multiple games and he has a remarkable accuracy for hitting with it. Bain has a wide variety of pass rush moves that he can use to help him to negate that length disadvantage and most importantly win hand fights. But he also shows an understanding of rush sequencing. He’s not just using the same move over and over again, and he’s not just randomly cycling through the different moves he has. He’s using certain rushes to set up other moves.

Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. is one of the most polarising prospects in this draft class. Is he good enough to overcome the short arm debate? I took a closer look: pic.twitter.com/QfnMQRmr9B

— Mark Bullock (@MarkBullockNFL) April 13, 2026

**Riggo’s Rag**

Commanders are too reliant on Terry McLaurin in the wide receiver room

A long contract standoff was swiftly followed by McLaurin dealing with nagging injuries throughout the season. He’s working hard to hit the ground running when preparations for the new campaign begin, but the stakes have been raised in no uncertain terms. Grant Paulsen of *106.7 The Fan* believes the signing of tight end Chig Okonkwo in free agency could help, but the Commanders don’t have enough. He also thought that another McLaurin injury would leave Washington with one of the NFL’s worst receiving corps.

“They do not have enough speed on offense, weapons on offense. [Chig] Okonkwo checks a box at tight end. But you are, to me, a [Terry] McLaurin injury away from having one of the worst skill position groups in the entire league.” This is a pretty fair assessment. It also won’t be lost on Peters. The Commanders are widely projected to add another wide receiver during the 2026 NFL Draft. Aiyuk is a hot name, but the San Francisco 49ers are dragging things out before eventually releasing him. Considering how much football Aiyuk has missed over the last two years, relying on him to get back to his old form immediately would be foolish. Therefore, delving into the remaining veteran pool before OTAs is worth considering.

The Blough Archetype: North Dakota State's Bryce Lance checks the most specific schematic boxes for David Blough’s offense, possessing the ideal traits of a lid-lifting Z-receiver with X-receiver potential.

The Contested Catch King: While Lance is a Day 2 value, Ohio State's…

— David Harrison (@DHarrison82) April 11, 2026

**Heavy.com**

Brandon Aiyuk Can Offer Commanders High Value at Minimal Risk

The Washington Commanders don’t appear overly interested in trading for a huge wide receiver contract, but a lack of curiosity from around the league in San Francisco 49ers pass-catcher Bradon Aiyuk may mean the Commanders won’t have to. Aiyuk has not been on the field for a regular-season snap since midway through 2024, when he suffered a major knee injury that included tears to his ACL and MCL. He was supposed to return at some point during the middle of last season, but internal issues with the 49ers led to the player and team essentially losing all contact and Aiyuk remaining out for all of 2025. [I]nstead of merely releasing him with a post-June 1 designation, which will save the 49ers $6.3 million against the salary cap, the team is hunting a trade for Aiyuk on that same timeline. Trading him saves San Francisco the same amount of money, but it would bring a draft asset of some sort back in return. **49ers Receiving Almost Zero Interest in Trade for Brandon Aiyuk** The likelihood of an Aiyuk trade will drop significantly if the draft — which begins on Thursday, April 23 and runs through the following weekend — passes without a deal coming together. But the chances of any agreement happening before then are also low based on a recent report from Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network. “Talking to people around the league, the name [Aiyuk] has not come up at all,” Jeremiah said, per KNBR. “So, that one — that’s a mystery.” Given how long Aiyuk has been absent from the field and his new reputation as a potentially troublesome addition — whether that moniker is fair or unfair — should put him in line for a one-year prove-it contract in 2026. He should also be healthy, motivated and ready to produce Week 1.

**Podcasts & videos**

(More) draft talk with ⁦@NickiJhabvala⁩. Going down draft rabbit holes; talking about the Commanders last two draft classes. Much more. @espnrichmond

— John Keim (@john\_keim) April 12, 2026 It’s time to focus on the Washington #Commanders ahead of the #NFLDraft!

Good fun chatting with @john\_keim this week as we focus on their draft plans and who they should prioritise with the 7th overall pick!

Watch➡️

— Will Varney (@willvarney\_) April 11, 2026

**NFC East links**

**Big Blue View**

NY Giants 2026 NFL Draft: Wide receivers options on all 3 days of the draft

Day 2

**Malachi Fields, Notre Dame** Fields is a big-bodied wide receiver who mostly aligned out wide. His career yards-per-route-run was 1.94, but his 2025 number was 2.20 with Notre Dame. Fields had an average aDot of 14.1 (16.4 in 2025) and his yards per reception was 15.1 (17.5 in 2025). Fields has only had three drops over the last two seasons. Fields forced 29 total missed tackles in his career, and he caught 47.2% of his contested catches (*34 of 72*). Fields caught 165 passes on 278 targets across his five seasons of college football — four of which were played at the University of Virginia. He finished his one season at Notre Dame with 36 grabs on 62 targets for 630 yards with five touchdowns and a 17.5-yard per catch number. He profiles as a prototypical X receiver, offering an excellent blend of size, strength, athleticism, and ball skills. He shows impressive fluidity for a player of his build and consistently attacks the football in the air, making acrobatic, high-degree-of-difficulty catches with strong concentration. Fields did a better job in 2025 of using his massive frame to his advantage at Notre Dame, particularly at the catch point. Once he opens up his stride, Fields eats up ground vertically and can generate adequate separation on deep posts. That said, questions about his ability to consistently separate against NFL-level coverage are fair. His pre-draft testing will be important in clarifying that projection. Ultimately, Fields is a physical, aggressive “baller” at the position, and he would be an excellent X option

Day 3

**Josh Cameron, Baylor** Cameron spent five seasons at Baylor, where he caught 170 of 261 passes for 2,230 yards and 19 touchdowns, with a 13.1-yards per catch number. Cameron is often compared to Deebo Samuel (*lite*) for their playing styles, build, and ability to create yards after the catch. Cameron averaged 1.59 yards per route run with an 88.7% wide alignment rate. He dropped seven footballs on 261 targets and averaged 13.1 yards per catch in college; he only dropped one pass in 2025. Cameron was a two-time First-Team All-Big-12 (*2024 & 2025*). Cameron was an accomplished punt returner in college. He had 45 punt returns for 630 yards (*14-yard average*) with three muffs and zero touchdowns. Cameron possesses an important blend of short area explosiveness in a dense frame. Cameron uses his frame well at the catch point with solid adjustment ability outside his frame, especially on throws behind him on the horizontal plane. He’s crafty after the catch with the necessary physical traits to run through arm-tackles. Baylor often used Cameron on deep overs and crossing routes and his football IQ allowed him to find vulnerabilities in zone coverage. Cameron is also an elite special teams asset as a punt returner; he averaged 20.7 yards per punt return in 2024 and finished his college career with a 14-yard return average. Cameron’s baseline special team traits will provide value to any team. His upside as a receiver, though, remains questionable due to his lack of elite athletic traits and questions about his ability to defeat press and run a multitude of routes. Still, there’s enough to roll the dice on when it comes to Cameron.

**NFL league links**

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**Front Office Sports**

Patriots to Hold Their Pre-NFL Draft Presser Without Mike Vrabel

*Patriots coach Mike Vrabel will not take part in the team’s press conference Monday, as fallout continues from the Dianna Russini controversy* Patriots coach Mike Vrabel will not take part in the team’s pre-NFL Draft press conference Monday afternoon, as fallout continues from the controversial leaked photos of Vrabel and Dianna Russini, a senior NFL insider for *The Athletic*. Vrabel isn’t expected to address reporters until the draft, according to ESPN. Patriots EVP of player personnel Eliot Wolf will hold New England’s predraft press conference Monday at 2 p.m. ET, which will be the first event open to the media at the team’s new 160,000-square-foot training facility. Last year, Vrabel conducted a pre-draft press conference on the Tuesday before the week of the 2025 NFL Draft. Vrabel and Russini have been under fire since the *New York Post’*s Page Six published photos on April 7 that appear to show the Patriots coach “holding hands and hugging” with Russini at an Arizona resort. Russini is sidelined during the probe, according to a source familiar with it, and her byline has not appeared on the website since April 7.

**NFL Draft**

**ESPN**

Ex-Miami DE Rueben Bain Jr. involved in 2024 car accident in which 1 person later died, report says

Bain was cited for careless driving for the accident that occurred at about 4 a.m. local time on March 17, 2024, on Interstate 95 northbound in Miami, according to documents obtained by The Read Optional. The crash report alleges Bain was driving a 2021 Land Rover SUV that had three other passengers — fellow Hurricanes football players Wesley Bissainthe and Nyjalik Kelly, along with a 22-year-old Georgia woman, Destiny Betts. Bain’s vehicle rear-ended another car, veered into a concrete barrier, then ricocheted into another barrier before coming to a rest on the shoulder of the highway. Betts was taken to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami, according to The Read Optional. The outlet reported that Betts was in a coma for nearly three months before she died from her injuries on June 13, 2024. Bain was cited at the time of the incident, but charges were dropped prior to Betts’ death, according to The Read Optional. No field sobriety tests were given, according to the crash report. **From Pro Football Talk:** While some teams may be concerned about the P.R. impact of drafting players with past off-field incidents, the bigger question is whether there’s reason to believe the players will be susceptible to off-field incidents once he’s in the NFL. It’s a decision any team in position to select Bain will have to consider. For some players, falling in the draft helps provide the wakeup call that makes future issues less likely to occur. The better comparison for Bain is Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter. He was involved in a fatal crash months before the draft. He slipped to No. 9 in the 2023 draft. He finished second in defensive rookie of the year voting, and he qualified for the Pro Bowl in 2024 and 2025.

I had been in contact with Betts family lawyer. It was their wishes that any story I was working on not be published until after the draft.

Here is a statement from the family (same one in Ollie's article + 2 paragraphs) pic.twitter.com/gv9MvgxZYO

— Cory (@fakecorykinnan) April 12, 2026

**NFL.com**

Rhett Lewis 2026 NFL mock draft 1.0: Eagles make biggest splash in Round 1

**23 – Philadelphia Eagles – Ty Simpson – Alabama · QB · Junior (RS)** *R-E-L-A-X.* While there has been no shortage of drama surrounding the Eagles and QB Jalen Hurts, I’m not advocating for drafting a replacement here, although Philly *has* had a habit of accumulating quarterbacks and then acquiring value by moving them down the line. This, however, feels like a potential landing area for Simpson via trade, especially if a team believes the Browns could be looking to select the Alabama product with their second first-round pick at 24. And instead of trying to predict which QB-needy organization will be desperate enough to make this move, I’m keeping the Eagles as a placeholder in this mock to highlight the tantalizing leverage they could hold when their turn comes around — setting Howie Roseman up perfectly to work some of his customary wheeler-dealer magic.

**ESPN**

NFL execs, scouts on 2026 draft’s most polarizing players

Ty Simpson, QB, Alabama

Simpson is polarizing due to circumstance more than ability. His draft stock is all over the map. The player loosely expects to go anywhere from 10 to 30 in the first round, but it’s hard to confidently project a home for him yet. Positional needs could push him above his grade, but enough scouts have a second-round grade on him to make early Day 2 a possibility. Simpson’s lack of starts is the primary concern. He started one year in an era when many quarterback prospects have two to four years of production. He played well through the first two months of the 2025 season and struggled late. “I don’t think anyone expects him to come in right away and be great. If picked in the 20s, he’ll get experience and reps and get legs under him. He’s a good kid, a coach’s kid, had a lot of good production and success. Maybe not on the same tier as top guys, but he’s still a player.” One veteran NFL scout called Simpson “a mix between Jared Goff and Mac Jones.” What helps Simpson’s cause is what he was asked to do at Alabama. “He made a lot of NFL throws,” an NFL personnel evaluator said. “Some guys were running a glorified high school offense in college, but [Simpson] was throwing deep in-breakers, corners, deep outs, seams, curls.”

Makai Lemon, WR, USC

An NFL personnel source said Lemon’s recall and detail of USC’s offense was not the strongest during a team interview. If teams love his intensity and competitive demeanor, they could overlook that. Lemon’s strengths are route running, running after the catch and contact balance. And, to be sure, plenty of star NFL players did not conduct great predraft interviews. Lemon’s 40-yard dash time ranged from 4.46 to 4.53 seconds at USC’s pro day, according to reports. One AFC scout considers him “too small and too slow. Maybe he can overcome that, but it’s an issue.” That scout said his best-case scenario is Amon-Ra St. Brown, who at 6-foot and 202 pounds has a similar build to Lemon (5-11, 192 pounds) and is also a former USC star.

**Pro Football Talk**

George Gumbs generating draft buzz as a wide receiver-turned edge rusher

Gumbs went from a walk-on wide receiver at Northern Illinois, to a scholarship tight end, to a defensive end, then transferred to Florida and held his own against elite competition in the SEC. Injuries cut Gumbs’ final season at Florida short, but he’s still generating some draft buzz after his 41-inch vertical was the second-best of all-time for a defensive lineman at the Combine. New England is among the teams showing interest; Mike Reiss of ESPN reports that Gumbs will be one of the Patriots’ 30 pre-draft visitors. Gumbs doesn’t project as a high pick, but he has the kind of talent, and room to continue growing, that will make some team take a flier on him, in the hopes that an athlete of his caliber can contribute on special teams right now, and eventually develop into a top-notch pass rusher.

A few medical-related draft items:

\* Georgia Tech WR Eric Rivers had hernia surgery 10 days ago; recovery another 3-5 weeks

\* Ole Miss DT Zxavian Harris had foot surgery post Combine, still in cast/boot

\* Cincinnati NT Dontay Corleone having tightrope surgery on left ankle…

— Eric Edholm (@Eric\_Edholm) March 26, 2026 Had my info a bit off: Corleone already had the ankle surgery. Next week he’s having the plate removed. It’s about 7-10 days recovery after that.

— Eric Edholm (@Eric\_Edholm) March 27, 2026

**aBit o’Twitter**

Marcus Freeman: "Unicorn" RB Jeremiyah Love could be an elite wide receiver

— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) April 13, 2026 "Erick Hunter, a linebacker from Morgan State, delivered the most complete performance at the 2026 NFL HBCU Showcase.

He posted elite numbers across multiple drills and reinforced his status as one of the top HBCU prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft class."

— COMMANDERS FOOTBALL (@HogsHaven) April 13, 2026 Former Washington OC @ScottTurner on the latest @TraporDive spoke about how he could’ve been more thorough/efficient with his time as OC, and how making enough time for situational football could be key for first-time coordinator David Blough. #RaiseHailpic.twitter.com/lJsLIq6ADt

— Jamual (@LetMualTellit) April 13, 2026 Duke has announced its inaugural former player coaching fellowship, bringing 10-year NFL veteran WR Jamison Crowder back into the program.

👏👏 pic.twitter.com/qeUx5BkeMq

— Arye Pulli (@AryePulliNFL) April 11, 2026 pic.twitter.com/eeC21EGIwZ

— Ashiq Mannan (@AshiqMannan) April 11, 2026