TAMPA, Fla. -- Tampa Bay Buccaneers run game coordinator/outside linebackers coach Larry Foote clapped his hands excitedly as rookie first-round pick Rueben Bain Jr. exploded from his four-point stance, jarring his hands into a blocking sled up into the air and several feet forward.
"Good violence! Good violence!" Foote exclaimed.
Next Bain came barreling toward Foote in the hoop drill, with his body contorting to a near-parallel position with the ground as he turned the corner, somehow staying on his feet.
"He has a great get-off. And to be that strong and have that get-off -- now you're lethal," Foote said.
He'd already seen the explosiveness, the leverage and how tough it was to block the 6-foot-2, 262-pound edge rusher on film -- his 20.5 sacks and 33.5 tackles for loss in college for Miami were certainly proof of that. But this reaffirmed what the tape had already showed him.
"Back in my Pittsburgh days, I played with a guy named James Harrison like that," said Foote, who watched Harrison become the Defensive Player of the Year in 2008 and whose 80.5 sacks are third all-time in Pittsburgh Steelers history. "It was just -- you couldn't block him. [Bain] has that trait, he has that ability."
Harrison also happened to be one of the hardest-hitting, most intimidating players in the league, and a tone-setter for a vaunted Steelers' defense that won two Super Bowls.
Bain's ability and relentless mentality were part of a conscientious defensive overhaul for coach Todd Bowles and general manager Jason Licht this offseason. Their mission? Get not only bigger and stronger on the defensive side of the ball and in their front seven in particular, but also to get meaner.
"We've never said that we don't want those kind of players," Licht said. "We've stressed 'high character' -- 'football character' -- but that doesn't mean that we don't want some nasty a--holes when they get on the field. We have made it a little bit of an effort to concerted effort to try to find the right blend of high character when it comes to team and being teammates, a 'football character,' but also edgy."
One such player Licht mentioned was Al-Quadin Muhammad, who notched 11 sacks last season for the Detroit Lions and whom they believe can play multiple spots along their defensive front. Muhammad is also eager to prove he can produce without playing opposite of Aidan Hutchinson.