TAMPA, Fla. -- It didn't take long for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' first-round pick to have his "welcome to the NFL" moment. It didn't come in the form of carrying a veteran's helmet and shoulder pads for edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr., or in a hard-fought one-on-one rep against a player such as All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs.
Instead, it was a text message from Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle and Buccaneer Ring of Honor member Warren Sapp, who was the last Miami Hurricanes player selected by the Buccaneers in the first round of the NFL draft. That was back in 1995, when he fell to 12th and helped build one of the NFL's top defenses for nearly a decade.
"He was just telling me, 'This his city, giving me his well wishes," said Bain, a Miami native whose relationship with Sapp goes back to his days at Miami Central High School.
General manager Jason Licht said the Bucs were "thrilled to death" to land Bain at No. 15 last Thursday, as many prognosticators had pegged him to go higher. Coach Todd Bowles was equally ecstatic.
Edge rusher was one of their biggest priorities heading into this draft, if not their biggest. They haven't had an edge rusher reach double-digit sacks since Shaquil Barrett did so with 10 in 2021.
"We had our minds made up on another player just because we figured the top eight or nine guys would be gone, and we knew Rueben was a top-10 pick," Bowles said. "He started falling a little bit, and he got to 15, and we knew it wasn't going any further."
Two edge rushers had already come off the board within the first five picks: David Bailey (No. 2 to the New York Jets), and Arvell Reese (No. 5 to the New York Giants).
"I've never seen a draft room so excited when we got Bain," assistant general manager Rob McCartney said. "Our scouting staff erupted from the back room. I was like, 'Where are they?' And they were all the way down the hall, and we could hear them. ... That was exciting. That was awesome."
Bain's just 21 and the Bucs feel he possesses some traits that simply cannot be coached.
"Pass rushers come in different ways and different types and different sizes," Bowles said. "Some are power, some are speed, some have an arsenal, some can bend, some can't. ... He can do it all, and he shows that up and down the line of scrimmage."
Director of player personnel Mike Biehl believes Bain (listed at 6-foot-3, 275 pounds) stands out because of his body type. Licht pointed out the advantage he has with his lower center of gravity.
"He's a shorter, thicker guy, but his power is unmatched in my opinion," Biehl said. "He has the ability to go through blockers' faces, which is a good place to start as a pass rusher in our league. Everybody talks about all the speed guys that can run the hoops, but it's hard to get around Tristan Wirfs. He's just as athletic as a lot of these guys and it's tough to get around him, so you [have] to be able to incorporate some kind of power into your game and he has that already.
"Now it's just a matter of him continuing to hone his skills and be able to use changeups which he's already done a lot of."
The one knock on Bain? His shorter arms at 30â…ž inches, placing him in the bottom 1% at the combine at his position.
"Mike Tyson has short arms too," said general manager Jason Licht, who selected another player with shorter arms in the first round at defensive tackle with Calijah Kancey (who had his fifth-year option picked up earlier this week) in 2023.
"I don't know if people know, but I really love boxing," Bain said after hearing the Tyson comment. "That's the person I feel like [is] very vicious and violent, and I feel like my game is vicious and violent. So, to compare some of the mindset things, I feel like we have [that] in common. I feel like it's a great comparison."
But they also brought him in to be an igniter and a culture changer. Bowles and Licht felt like they needed to get bigger and hungrier on defense this offseason. It's reflected in their free agent signings of defensive lineman A'Shawn Robinson, edge rusher Al-Quadin Muhammad and inside linebacker Alex Anzalone. You can also see it in their second-round draft pick -- a thumper in inside linebacker Josiah Trotter -- and Bain's college teammate, nickelback Keionte Scott, who was considered one of the most aggressive, physical defensive backs in this year's draft.
"[Bain] brings a lot of attitude and effort and just some nastiness that we've kind of been lacking a little bit, I think, on defense," Biehl said.
Bain, who said playing with a "head-on-fire mentality" is key for him, helped Miami reach the CFP national championship, and he registered five sacks with seven tackles for loss and 17 combined tackles in four postseason games.
His mentality? "Just run around knowing that you never know what play could be your last."
"I'm always playing like that," Bain said. "I come in the game [with] the mindset that I don't take anything for granted. When I step on the field, I'm trying to give them my all each and every time."
He'll compete with Muhammad and Yaya Diaby for a starting role, but either way -- he'll see a ton of playing time early.
"I think in the draft there's maybe a lot of the 'designated pass rusher' types, and I think being able to get a guy that you know can do that and then plays the run at a really high level and never likes to come off the field -- I think that's another asset too -- that this guy does not like coming off the field," McCartney said. "His ability to beat up tight ends in the run game is going to be really good, too. Just excited to have a guy that you know is going to be a three-down capable player."
It doesn't hurt to have one who has the endorsement and mentorship of Sapp, as well as those in the franchise.
