Originally posted by Kolohe:
Originally posted by genus49:
All this talk about Shemar Stewart…despite my major reluctance for us to grab a player who is too much projection it's tough not to see the potential vision there.
I already mentioned the easy comp to Ziggy Ansah, who happened to be drafted by a team running the wide 9 coached by Kocurek.
I'll be very curious who will fall to us at 11 and most likely I'll be rooting for a trade down unless Membou or Mason Graham fall but with the depth at DT in this class I can definitely see Stewart being the pick.
And if he's the pick I'll hope like hell that between Coach K and Bosa, these guys basically lock themselves in a room and drill pass rush technique like their SB lives are depending on it.
I saw the Trey Lance comp earlier and definitely don't agree with that one. First of all scheme is a part of the issue with lack of sacks there, Stewart still has great production playing the run and has played for 3 years and has improved his pressure rate.
How is scheme part of the issue? When you watch his highlights he's firing off one on one vs the OT. I could see of he engaged then backed off, but that's simply not the case.
I think its a fair comparison between Stewart and Trey Lance. For one Trey Lance was a one hit wonder and Stewart has very little production in the pass rush department.
Too much projection like you said, I'd hate to see them make that same mistake twice.
I already made a pretty sizeable post about his strengths and weaknesses, and explicitly stated that, while scheme plays a sizeable role, it cannot and should not be used to exclusively excuse his lack of production. But I think you are confused by what we are saying.
His highlights show him fire off the ball....that should be a good thing. That means, when he DOES fire off the ball, he creates a highlight worthy play. Of course he does this in his highlight, that's why they're highlights. Also, you're misunderstanding what we mean by scheme limitations. We are not saying read and react as in, engage your man, hold the edge, read the play, react. In the context of their scheme read and react means, at the snap, they stand straight up and read the play. It's subtle, you're not gonna see a player standing still for 3 seconds. But for rushing the passer, that half second matters. And then it compounds with NOT firing upfield and losing that explosive element. So even tho they're moving, they aren't maximizing the speed to which they can get to the QB, and production will underwhelming as a result.
As previously mentioned, his current weakness is that he is slow to recognize things. So now, those two scheme disadvantages compound even further because not only is "reading and reacting" slow, but he's even slower to do that. And then it compounds FURTHER because it limits his biggest strength (which is what makes him a rare prospect), his size-adjusted athleticism.
He needs to work on play recognition. He needs to work on pass rush plan. He needs to hone in the top of his rush, learn to throttle down...he needs to improve his footwork to offset his (what i perceive as) tight ankles. But getting into our scheme, he can immediately upgrade our run defense, while accentuating what makes him a rare ceiling player as a pass rusher.
[ Edited by adrianlesnar on Mar 17, 2025 at 8:38 PM ]