The real reason Shemar Stewart wasn’t productive in college

Draft analysis Kent Lee Platte provides hope the Bengals made the right decision.

You’ve heard it a lot by now: the Cincinnati Bengals used the 17th overall pick on a pass rusher who had 4.5 sacks in college.

What were they thinking?!

Of course, you’ve also probably heard that Shemar Stewart had perfect 10.0 Relative Athletic Score (RAS), the best ever recorded for a defensive end in the history of the NFL Combine.

So we invited the founder of RAS, Kent Lee Platte (better known as @MathBomb on Twitter/X) to provide some insight.

There’s clearly a component related to technique. “Shemar Stewart does have some problems with finishing his tackles,” Platte said. “That’s something that has to be cleaned up… The fact that the Bengals took him that high is a sign they think they can fix it.”

Platte mentioned the example of Danielle Hunter, who also had 4.5 sacks despite being extremely gifted athletically. Hunter suffered from poor technique before being coached up by Mike Zimmer on the Minnesota Vikings.

However, Platte thinks the bigger issue is usage.

So instead of comparing Stewart to Hunter, it would make more sense to compare him to Ziggy Ansah, who was drafted fifth overall by the Detriot Lions in 2013.

“They had [Ansah] at 270 ends playing defensive end, linebacker, interior tackle, and safety even on some plays,” Platte said. Then Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz decided to just have him rush the passer from the defensive end spot.

So after just 4.5 sacks in three years at BYU, Ansah ended up with eight sacks his first year in the NFL.

“Sometimes it’s just as simple as the way a player is being used in that college scheme is not the way he’s going to be used in the NFL,” Platte said. “And who cares what you did in college. I’m about what they think you can do in the NFL.”

Watch the entire analysis below.