Robbie Warnock and Shaun Hampson will face off with Paddy Ryder and Tom Bellchambers on Saturday at the MCG, with David Hille expected to play in the VFL but lurking outside the team as a listed emergency.
Waite said he believed his tall teammates had the capacity to get on top of the big Bombers and give the Blues first use of the ball.
"We've got the two big boys, big Hampson and Robbie, they're going well at the moment and [the Bombers] have obviously got really good ruckmen," he said on Friday.
"We think we've got better talent than them and the boys are definitely looking forward to the contest in the ruck."
Waite said the Blues wouldn't lose sleep over whether Essendon coach James Hird would go against his declaration that Hille would line up for Bendigo and bring him in as a late inclusion instead.
He also said his side would endeavour to make Saturday's big game as defensive as possible, having earmarked the Bombers' ability to boot big scores.
"If you get in a shoot out with Essendon, they're very good on the counter-attack, so we'll make it a bit more defensive but it's going to be a good contest," he said.
"If we're not defensive, they're just going to cut through us.
"We've got to be on our game with our defence and tackling, and we've trained pretty hard this week to combat that, and on the flip side, we've also got to win the ball first and get it into our hands, which makes it harder for them."
Michael Jamison and inclusion Simon White are likely to have the task of curtailing forward Michael Hurley and Ryder, when he's in attack.
Waite said the backline had the ability to hold down the Bombers' goal-kickers, and would also benefit from Lachie Henderson's presence for the first time this year up the other end.
"We think Jammo and Whitey and the boys down there are going to be able to hold their own, and they've done their homework on the Bombers' forwards and the boys are very professional and they'll know how to defeat them," he said.
"Hendo has had interrupted pre-season but his form for the Bullants has been really good.
"He's just another key forward down there who can help myself and big Hampson out, and Whitey had a ripping pre-season and is a bit stronger and more mature than Watto [Matthew Watson].
"We're looking for a lot out of both of them."
Waite said dropped defender Bret Thornton was headed back to the VFL to attempt to find some consistency this weekend.
"I don't think he's overly excited; no one's excited to be dropped," he said.
"He's just got to go back to the Bullants and perform well, whether that be up forward or down back.
"He's a really good utility for us, he can go forward or back and he's just got to train and play hard."
The Blues trained on Friday at Visy Park and are not expected to make any late changes to their side.
