Bengals first round pick Shemar Stewart was one of the biggest bright spots in their 17-16 win over the Cleveland Browns in Week 1. While Stewart did not accumulate a single counting stat, he made his presence felt by collapsing pockets and disrupting the opposing running game.
Let’s take a deeper dive into how he performed, what role he provides for the team right now, and how he can continue to grow to have a larger impact:
Run Defense
At the moment, Stewart is someone who creates chaos in the run game. He does this by using his physical gifts to defeat his block and make things difficult on the opponent. The first snap of his NFL career is a great example.
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) September 9, 2025
Stewart violently punches into Jack Conklin to set a hard edge and gain the upper hand in this battle. He then is able to shed back inside with ease when the running back commits to the inside. He does not make the play, but he does help to end the hopes of this play going anywhere. The only room for improvement on this is to finish this in a tackle somehow.
Next, Stewart gets reduced down to a 4i just inside of left tackle Dawand Jones.
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) September 9, 2025
Again, look at the violent punch that jars the left tackle. The judo hip toss is really cool to watch but the key part of this play is how he is able to punch into Jones and force him into an upright position. The rep is over from there. There is really no way for Jones to recover when he gets hit so violently in the chest that his feet stop and he’s now standing straight up and down. The hip toss is very cool, but Stewart should probably find a quicker way to shed this block. He’s a violent player and his play set a tone early on in Sunday’s game. It’s worth noting that he did have a more tradition shed [of a block] later in the game.
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) September 9, 2025
Stewart is reduced down again this time to a 6-technique head up over the tight end. Watch how he again establishes immediate control over his opponent. He gets his hands into the shoulder pads of David Njoku and then immediately works him down the line to close the gap.
The entire time he has Njoku locked out, he’s peeking around to watch what the running back is going to do. Once the running back declares outside, he sheds the block that way. This time with just a traditional snatch to throw the blocker off of him. Again, he does not finish this in a tackle but he is one of the main reasons that the play went nowhere.
Another similar play here as Stewart is reduced down to playing in a 3-technique just outside of the guard.
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) September 9, 2025
His ability to punch into an offensive lineman and immediately lock them out is key to his success as a run defender. Offensive linemen want to keep their opposition close when blocking. It allows for them to better control the rep and to stay attached because you have more grip strength and power when your hands are closer to your body.
The best way to beat that is to lock them out and keep them from getting close. Stewart’s length here is on display as he gets these offensive linemen locked out with no hope of breaking that point of contact. The other part that’s extremely impressive is his ability to raise their pad level when he punches them. He’s hitting the blocker with upward force that stuns, raises, and locks them out. He doesn’t do anything to the ball carrier on this rep but it’s another good example of the block destruction he has in his toolbelt.
While he performed well, it wasn’t a perfect day for the rookie.
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) September 9, 2025
This feels like a Week 1 rookie miscommunication of some sort. He’s rushing inside and there’s no reason for it. He really should violently deconstruct the crack block coming his way so that he can go get involved in this play. Instead he takes himself out of the play.
The room for growth in the run game really just comes from turning these wins into stops. Right now he’s doing a great job of helping his teammates make the play but there are opportunities if he sheds quicker, keeps his feet, and wraps up the ball carrier to turn these plays into tackles.
Pass Rushing
Stewart recorded three pressures against the Browns according to NextGenStats. Two of those pressures were listed as quick pressures and he actually has the quickest time to pressure on the team for his recorded pressures. The interesting part of this is that Stewart could actually be even quicker on these pressures.
Take this play as an example of a pressure where he could actually work this differently and end up with a more effective, quicker pressure.
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) September 9, 2025
Stewart’s initial long arm strike comes with his pad level fairly high and an inefficient transfer of power from his lower body to his upper body.Â
Shemar Stewart playing high on bull / NFL Plus
He has his hands below his eyes on the strike which is a sign of an ineffective bull rush. Rather than allowing that to be the end of the rep, he sinks down and gets into this position.
Shemar Stewart sinks into a good bull rush / NFL Plus
Now he’s pushing all of his force from his base into the offensive lineman. He drives the right tackle back and eventually pries open the inside shoulder for a pressure. If he could get into this body positioning earlier this could be an extremely effective pressure. As it stands it’s a very good play to collapse the pocket and make the quarterback feel him on the rush.
Here’s another great example of him not winning initially but then getting into fantastic body position to win on the second effort:
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) September 9, 2025
This time he loses the initial rush because the tackle punched into him but watch as he gets low and turns this rush into an extremely efficient transfer of power from his base up through his upper body. The body positioning he gets into on this rush is absolutely perfect.
His three pressures were promoted by a handful of other wins as well. Almost all of his wins follow the same path as the previous two examples. He doesn’t win initially but then sinks down and converts all of his strength and athleticism into power to either drive the tackle back or to open up their inside shoulder. This performance was very promising but it could be even better if he could get into that position earlier.
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) September 9, 2025
The rules for OL vs DL don’t change in pass protection. The DL is still trying to keep the OL away from their body while the OL would like to strike first and then close the space.
Stewart does not have a good enough long arm to strike into the tackle and keep him away from his body on this play. Instead, the arm becomes bent allowing the tackle to absorb the contact through his body more. This also makes it incredibly difficult for Stewart to disengage and turn this into a possible quarterback hit or sack. He can clearly get in pristine bull rush positioning from the prior examples, if he got into that positioning earlier in this rep, then he could have won with a long arm rush.
He had a similar issue here when he got reduced inside to rushing against the guard:
— Walter (@Pff_Walter) September 9, 2025
Stewart’s initial punch comes while his pad level is raised. Instead of having his hands above his eyes on the rush. He punches into Joel Bitonio with an inefficient transfer of power. Bitonio then reduces the space between them and is able to turn it into a wrestling match. Stewart from that place is at a disadvantage and he doesn’t do anything on the rep because of it.
It was an extremely impressive performance given that one of the knocks on him was his pass rush win rate coming out of college. He won a majority of his reps in this game. He could become one of the premier power rushers in football if he learns to sink down earlier, provide a stiff long arm, and consistently end up in a clean position to transfer all of his strength and athleticism into power while using his absurd length to keep the blocker off of his body. He doesn’t need a ton of pass rush moves if he’s capable of clobbering opponents.
Current Role and Trajectory
Stewart is in a disruptor role. He’s not finishing plays but he is consistently affecting them. Ideally, he can start finishing plays after a few weeks. By the end of the year we should see more than flashes. Those flashes should become production. He has the talent and physical ability to become one of the premier power rushers in the game today with his rare combination of tools.
If he cleans himself up technically, the sky is the limit with Stewart.