Film Room: Shemar Stewart is Better than You Think

Don’t believe everything that you here, Stewart can flat out play

We knew the Cincinnati Bengals spent a lot of time with Texas A&M defensive linemen, and we knew they were closely linked to Shemar Stewart. Yet, when they selected the pass-rusher who has never had two sacks in a season in Round 1, an audible grown could be heard throughout Cincinnati.

However, Stewart is an absolute freak physically. While he did not do agility tests (it seems like no one does these days), you can see on tape that he has fluid hips and change-of-direction speed.

While he didn’t have impressive no… adequate no… existent sack numbers, he did lead his team in pressures last year with 39.

So, what gives?

This first clip is Shemar Stewart in a nutshell.

Stewart explodes through the left tackle and easily disperses with him, but he doesn’t make the play.

There are two reasons why he fails to make the sack here.

The first is his aiming point. As an edge rusher, you have to aim for the quarterback’s back shoulder to avoid letting them escape the pocket. That’s a pretty easy fix and not something I see frequently on his film.

However, there is another more consistent issue demonstrated here.

When he goes to make the tackle, he reaches and tries to make the play with those long. strong arms of his.

I understand how simple this sounds, but all he needs to do is get in the habit of taking one more step before attempting the tackle, and he’ll get the results you’re looking for.

Stewart shows off his agility with a sweet crossover to start this rep, but what really impresses me is the strong arm at the end.

With one arm, Stewart drives the tackle back and collapses the pocket.

His ability to go from speed to power stands out among this draft class. Lots of guys have one or the other in their repertoire. He has both on the same play.

Stewart is a hustler with the speed to run down the play from behind. Against Notre Dame, he chased the running back 30 yards down the field. I am certain that his new defensive coordinator remembers that play vividly.

In this clip, he starts off rushing the passer, then plants and runs down the swing pass making the tackle for a loss of yards.

Think about how crazy that is!

Stewart is an excellent run defender.

In this clip, he drives the tackle back and holds the edge forcing the cutback. Then he disengages and darts inside to make the tackle.

This is a fantastic play.

In this clip. the offense runs a counterplay.

The defining characteristics of a counterplay are one player (usually a guard) pulling to kick out the edge defender and another player (in this case, the h-back, #21) pulling and leading up the hole.

In this clip, Stewart perfectly executes the “wrong arm” technique. Instead of taking on the puller on the outside (holding the edge but creating a new gap), Stewart bends inside of the block, forcing the ball to bounce out wide, where two unblocked defenders are free to make the play.

This demonstrates his ability to understand different types of blocks and blocking schemes and play off of them correctly at full speed.

Shemar Stewart has to clean up his finish in the backfield, but he has the tools to be a special player in the NFL. Getting Stewart to reach his potential will be new defensive line Jerry Montgomery’s top priority.