Texas A&M edge rusher Shemar Stewart is without a doubt one of the more fascinating case studies you’ll find in the NFL draft this year. Many will look at his physical traits and walk away enamored. If you look at the stat sheet, however, you may walk away disgusted. It’s what makes mock drafts that have the New Orleans Saints selecting Stewart so divisive.
The defensive end is the epitome of traits vs. production or athlete vs. player. Stewart ended his career with 4.5 sacks over three years, finishing with exactly 1.5 sacks in every season. You can pick an edge rusher out of a hat filled with NFL draft prospects and you’ll likely pick a guy with over 4.5 sacks in an individual season.
When questions like that surrounding him, it was a curious decision to not participate in the positional drill at the NFL Scouting Combine or Texas A&M pro day. It’s a decision that, per SportsKeeda’s Tony Pauline, is “not sitting well with teams.”
Stewart ran and jumped well at the Combine. He reached the fourth fastest top speed among all edge rushers in the 10-yard split. However, teams didn’t need to know what kind of athlete he was. It’s nice to have measurements and times that support the eye test, but people are questioning the actual football aspect of it.
Tape is paramount to all other forms of evaluation, but positional drills are still valuable. The most beneficial trait of these drills is fluidity in movement. Teams want to see how the player moves laterally and if he has good hips in pass rush drills. Stewart’s draft stock is strongly based upon traits, and by skipping positional drills, he took a lot of traits off the evaluation table. It makes sense teams would be displeased by this.