Hogs Haven
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One of the most polarizing prospects in this draft class is Texas A&M defensive end Shemar Stewart. Some analysts have him as one of their top 15 players in this draft class while others don’t see him as a first rounder at all. Stewart is so divisive because he’s one of the classic traits vs production type players while also falling into the workout warrior vs football player debate too. When you start looking into Stewart, it’s easy to see why he causes so much debate.
If you look at his combine measurements - 6-foot-5, 267 pounds, 34-inch arms - he looks like what you would build on Madden as a prototype for a defensive end. Then you look at his performance in athletic testing drills at the combine, it gets even more enticing. Stewart ran a 4.59 40-yard dash, fourth among defensive ends this year and the three that were ahead of him all weighed 10-20 pounds less than him. His 10-yard split was 1.58, which ranked third among defensive ends. James Pearce Jr. was the fastest and he ran a 1.56 10-yard split with 20 pounds less weight on his frame. He also ranked second among defensive ends with a 40-inch vertical jump and was the top performer in the broad jump, which are drills to test explosiveness.
On paper and in the gym, Stewart has everything NFL teams are looking for from a defensive end in terms of physical profile. However, If you then look at his production from college, you get a completely different story. Stewart had 4.5 sacks total across three seasons at Texas A&M. That’s an average of just 1.5 sacks per season. Now sacks aren’t the most effective way of measuring the production and effectiveness of a pass rusher, but you would still expect a player of his athletic profile to have accumulated far more sacks than that in three years.
Already then, it’s clear to see why Stewart is such a debated prospect. But we’ve only looked at athletic testing numbers and box scores so far. The most important part of any evaluation is the film. So what does the tape say about Stewart’s athletic profile vs his production? Well, it’s mixed. I think a lot of people will see what they want to see when studying Stewart’s play from college. There certainly are reps where he looks fantastic and dominates a play, but there’s also reps where he looks like a player nowhere near ready to be a first round pick.
Here is a play that shows the raw potential of Stewart. He works against the Notre Dame left tackle on this play and displays a lot of the traits...
