The College Football Playoff national championship game took place in South Florida on Monday night, and it was a joy for fans of the NFL draft.
The matchup between undefeated Indiana and 10th-seeded Miami featured the possible first two picks of the 2026 draft: Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza and Hurricanes defensive end Rueben Bain Jr.
Following the decision of Oregon quarterback Dante Moore to return to college, Mendoza is widely considered a lock to be selected first overall by the Las Vegas Raiders. That leaves fans of the New York Jets, who possess the second overall pick, looking for alternative routes.
Bain might be the best one, and he made his case on Monday night.
Rueben Bain stands out in CFP title game
Mendoza claimed the victory and had the most memorable play of the night, a Superman-like dive for a touchdown on a fourth-down draw in the fourth quarter, but it was Bain who arguably had the better stock-raising performance.
Consistently harassed by Bain and the Hurricanes’ defense, Mendoza struggled for most of the night, posting an adjusted completion percentage of just 64%, his second-worst mark of the season. His 6.9 yards per pass attempt was also his second-worst mark of the year, and it was just his second game without a passing touchdown.
Mendoza struggled to push the ball downfield (besides a pair of outstanding catches on poorly-placed back-shoulder throws) and looked rattled in the face of pressure. When pressured, Mendoza completed 3-of-6 passes for 31 yards while taking three sacks and scrambling once for a single yard. Without a blocked punt for a touchdown from Indiana’s special teams, the Hoosiers may have lost this game due to their struggles through the air.
Bain was responsible for much of the pressure that Mendoza faced.
The 6-foot-3, 275-pound defensive end racked up seven tackles, a sack, and three total pressures in an all-around dominant performance across both phases. It is also critical to note that Bane missed zero tackles, highlighting how locked-in the future first-round pick was in the biggest game of the season.
In addition to his individual production, Bain made an impact through the attention he commanded. Early in the second half, fellow Hurricanes edge rusher Akheem Mesidor (a potential first-round pick in his own right) roasted the Hoosiers’ right tackle in a one-on-one situation for a sack on Mendoza, and at the tail end of the play, you can see Bain commanding attention from three blockers.
The national championship game caps off a wildly productive season for the 21-year-old true junior. In 16 games, Bain finished with 9.5 sacks, 15.5 tackles for loss, 54 total tackles, and 83 total pressures. He closes the year with an overall Pro Football Focus grade (a surprisingly predictive metric for NFL EDGE prospects) of 92.8, ranking second-best among FBS edge rushers, trailing only Texas Tech’s David Bailey.
Bain and Bailey will be two of the most widely discussed prospects among Jets fans in the coming months. Based on his analytical profile, Bailey arguably has the best odds of success among all edge rushers in this class, although Bain is not far behind.
The primary knock on Bain throughout the draft process will be his arm length. While Bain’s exact arm length is unknown at the moment, he is expected to come in with a short measurement.
However, Bain’s dominant production and elite traits at a young age should trump the concerns about his arm length. It was just four years ago when the Jacksonville Jaguars took an unproductive player with elite traits over a dominant player with short arms, and the Detroit Lions will be thankful for the next decade.
Between Bain, Bailey, and Ohio State’s Arvell Reese, the Jets have plenty of tantalizing options if they wish to take an edge rusher with the second overall pick.
After a season in which they had zero interceptions and the second-fewest sacks (26), it is easy to imagine the Jets falling in love with the idea of taking one of these guys second overall, no matter how much they may need a quarterback.
