Woah…
The Cincinnati Bengals’ selection of Shemar Stewart with the 17th pick in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft was a polarizing pick, to say the least.
While Stewart generated a lot of pressure (39) last season, he only finished with 1.5 sacks in 2024. His college career features only 4.5 sacks.
Despite that, the Bengals still opted to use a premium pick on Stewart, and according to Mike Payton of A to Z Sports, the Bengals weren’t the only team enamored by Stewart’s potential.
Payton believes the Detroit Lions tried to trade up for Stewart before the Bengals ultimately ended up selecting him.
“I think the Lions tried to trade up for Texas A&M edge rusher Shemar Stewart on Thursday night.” Payton wrote, referring to comments from Lions general manager Brad Holmes from Day 2 of the draft. “I don’t need to get into specifics, but there were times we made attempts to get one, and you just — they got picked before, you couldn’t get up. It takes two to trade.”
Pre-draft visits can usually help us gauge a team’s interest in a player, and Payton believes Detroit’s visits support his theory.
“So there’s the proof that the Lions attempted to trade up for one. Why do we think it was Stewart?” Payton questioned. “It’s all based on the top 30 visits. The Lions really seem to love picking the guys they have in for those visits. Isaac TeSlaa and Tyleik Williams are more proof of that. We’ll probably find Tate Ratledge and Miles Frazier came in, too, at some point. The Lions had just three edge rushers in for 30 visits, and only one of them was a first-round guy. That was Stewart. He wound up going 17th to the Bengals.”
There were some who thought Steward could go in the top 15 picks — several mocks had him going in the top 10 — so it isn’t a shock to hear that another team was interested, but Stewart will now look to turn potential into production in Cincinnati.
