Five Takeaways From Defensive Line, Edge Rusher, and Linebacker Workouts at the NFL Combine 

After hearing from the Patriots top decision-makers earlier in the week, the attention at the NFL Scouting Combine turned to the on-field workouts inside Lucas Oil Stadium on Thursday night.

During his press conference on Tuesday morning in Indianapolis, EVP of Player Personnel Eliot Wolf pointed to edge rusher as a need for the Patriots. With top pass-rusher K’Lavon Chaisson slated to be an unrestricted free agent and veteran Harold Landry III coming off a knee injury in 2025, Wolf confirmed what many of us believed to be true: it’s a strong edge rusher class, which could allow the Pats to fill a need.

“It’s a fairly deep class at that position that’s obviously an area of need for our team, so it matches up nicely,” Wolf said, adding later what the Patriots look for at the position. “Pass rush, speed and violence, explosiveness, first-step quickness, and the ability to win in multiple ways. You can’t just be a run around the hoop guy at this level. There’s some guys in college that are able to be successful that way, but you need different things in your toolbox [in the NFL].”

Last offseason, the Pats targeted Landry (6-2, 252lbs) and Chaisson (6-3, 254lbs) in free agency. They also drafted Bradyn Swinson (6-3, 255lbs) in the fifth round and second-year edge rusher Elijah Ponder (6-1, 258) was a nice find in undrafted free agency – that ~255-pound speed-rusher mold appears to be their type. Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel added that New England met with “a bunch” of EDGE prospects in Indy. Potential first-rounders Texas A&M’s Cashius Howell and Missouri’s Zion Young then confirmed to reporters that they met with the Patriots in Indy.

Now that we know the Patriots are looking to target edge rushers in the draft, the question is who are the best fits that will be available when they’re slated to pick? New England currently holds the 31st overall pick in the first round coming off its Super Bowl trip, which is a good problem to have. Due to the depth of the edge rusher class, the Patriots might still have a chance at an impact defender late on day one or even on day two. The challenge in evaluating this edge rusher class is that there isn’t much separating the late-day one, early day-two cluster, so it’s really about picking your preferred flavor of skill sets, body types, and culture fits. As is the case in every draft, there will be hits and misses. Even in an intriguing crop like this one, not every prospect will pan out.

Although the Patriots brass emphasized the edge rusher class, Wolf also noted that New England would like to add some youth into its inside linebacker room behind veterans Robert Spillane, Jahlani Tavai, and Christian Elliss, while LB Jack Gibbens is a restricted free agent this offseason. You can also never have too many interior defensive linemen, especially ones that can get after the passer, and NT Khyiris Tonga is set to be an unrestricted free agent when the 2026 league year begins in March.

Here are five takeaways as the defensive front seven took centerstage inside Lucas Oil Stadium on Thursday night in Indianapolis.

1. Potential First-Round Edge Rushers Measure in as Length Outliers (here we go again…)

Yup, it’s that time of year again: arm lengths! No, we didn’t take a time machine back to last year when we debated for months about the importance of Will Campbell’s arm length measurement.

Outside of height, weight, and athletic testing, we used to only really care about quarterback hand size and arm length for OTs. Now, we’ve added wingspan as a key measurement and it’s something that we analyze for pretty much every position, especially in the trenches. If you’re an outlier in any way, we will spend way too much time arguing about it. The importance of arm length is that the longer you are in the trenches, the faster you can establish contact with your opponent, which allows you to control engagements and have more margin for error. Wingspan measures how wide your upper body is, so trench players with larger wingspans are harder to get around and occupy more space. For defensive players, good length also gives them a larger tackle radius.

The two edge rushers who are length outliers this cycle are projected top pick Rueben Bain (Miami) and Texas A&M’s Cashius Howell. Media consensus boards have Bain as a projected top-five pick, while Howell was supposed to go somewhere in the teens. On Thursday, Bain measured in with 30 ⅞” arms (third-lowest among EDGE since 1999) and a 77 ½” wingspan (10th percentile). Howell’s arms are even shorter, measuring in with the shortest arm length of any edge rusher at the combine since at least 1999 (30 ¼”) and a 74 ¼” wingspan.

Since 1999, no edge rusher with sub-31-inch arms has ever been a top-100 pick. That will change come April as both Bain and Howell are still going early. My guess is that the tape and production on one of the best defenses in college football last year will win out for Bain, as it did for Campbell last year, because the rest of the draft profile for the Miami standout is just too good. There was some buzz in Indy that Bain could fall out of the top-10 because of his unique dimensions, but it would be absolutely crazy if he made it to 31.