Acme Packing Company
Stewart is an elite athlete whose production hasn’t matched his traits
Considering how strongly the Green Bay Packers’ pre-draft visits are linked to the college players that they actually select, we’re going to attempt (keyword: attempt) to get scouting reports on every player that the Packers bring in for visits this offseason. Our work is cut out for us on the first player to take a visit, the controversial edge defender Shemar Stewart.
Why is he controversial? Well, his evaluation is essentially a Rorschach test for how you view the college-to-NFL pipeline at the defensive end position. As an athlete, he’s comparable to fellow former Texas &M product Myles Garrett. In box scores, though, the former five-star recruit has posted all of 4.5 sacks in his college career. Despite that, he shows traits that will eventually make him a first-round pick next month.
How is that possible, you ask? Well, this is what college football looks like right now: Last season, Tennessee — an SEC school that made the college football playoff — attempted just over 100 true pass attempts in the entire year, including the postseason. That excludes screens, RPOs, play action and quick game, which make up the vast majority of college passing at the moment. You’re not reading that wrong: The true progression pass is almost out of the college game completely.
Here’s what Packers great Mike Daniels had to say on Twitter/X on the topic of college production for defensive linemen:
So if college offenses aren’t calling true dropback pass plays, why should defenses play their best athletes in pass-first edge roles that primarily influence just that aspect of the game? That’s one reason why so many edge defender prospects now either play out of position, either on the interior or off-ball linebacker, or are playing run-first roles, like Stewart did at A&M.
In the same way that NFL teams have had to draft quarterbacks and offensive linemen as prospects, relying on traits-based scouting instead of simply selecting finished products, the league is starting to have to do the same for box defenders. That is just life now for a league that has no hands in the development of its future players before they’re at least three years removed from high school.
The South Florida product is a freak athlete. I cannot understate this. He might be the most athletic edge rusher we’ve ever been able to measure through combine metrics.
Does that translate to the field? Well, I’m glad you asked. Here’s a bunch of clips of him blowing up run plays before they could ever get started off of the strength of his impressive first step.
According to Pro Football Focus, Stewart has gotten consistently better as a run defender throughout his college career. As a true freshman, he was graded 37.6 by the company. That rose to 63.6 in 2023 and an elite 88.2 as a junior last year.
When he’s not just flying off of the...
