Bengals Rookie Shemar Stewart Has Elite Talent | Film Review

Bengals Rookie Shemar Stewart Has Elite Talent | Film Review

All right, welcome back to another one of our film reviews. Today we are talking Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Jamar Stewart. Stewart flashed a lot of his high upside plays in the Bengals first preseason game. Not a great day defensively for Cincinnati’s defense, but Stewart wasn’t the reason why he highlighted a lot of why the Bengals are so high on him and we’ll get to all of that. Great set of cutups for you today. As always, leave us a comment with any feedback or any other players you want us to break down. But without further ado, let’s jump right into the film. All right, let’s open up with a pass situation. There’s Shamar Stewart right there on the right side of your screen. So, we’re in a third and long situation. You can see the Bengals are lined up with the pass rush alignment. They’ve got three techniques really wide. We call him a three technique cuz he’s on the outside shoulder of the guard right there. We’ve got Stewart over here. He’s lined up in a wide five, a five technique on the outside shoulder of the tackle. Sometimes you’ll see this referred to as a wide nine because he’s so far out here. But this is a situation. This is why you’re drafted. these high upside opportunities right here. Third long. Can you beat a left tackle one-on-one and get pressure on the quarterback? Stewart does right here. Let’s check it out. All right, there’s the snap. You can see the Eagles sliding the protection to the left, the right side of your screen. Shamar Stewart going to be one-on-one with the left tackle. Pretty standard pass rush. No stunt, nothing really special going on across the board. Just monoe mono pass rush. Let’s see how Stewart does here. Gets at the field vertical. You see right there how he tries to get his outside arm to knock down the shoulder pad. Knock down the he uh the the left arm right there of that left tackle. Then rips through just like that. Good technique finish. Good pressure. This is what you want, right? This is winning right here. This is a pressure third and long in the National Football League. Get the ball out of the quarterback’s hands. Can’t step into the pocket. Check down, rally, make the tackle, punt, fourth down. Right? Good stuff. This is what you want from Shamar Stewart. This is the kind of flashes that they really are hoping to see. Obviously with Hendrickson still a lingering issue. They’re looking to see what other edge rushers can they bring into the fold. Shamar Stewart again technically pretty sound, great athleticism, though. I love the fact that he threatens his outside shoulder so aggressively and then rips through with that inside arm. That’s what you’re taught to do. Fundamentally sound football player. Good rep. All right, from the wide copy, you get a really good look at it at the top of your screen right here. You can see right here, he threatens with vertically up to speed and then takes his right arm right there. He’s almost a little early with it. He’s so hyperaggressive. That’s one of the themes that we’re going to see from Stuart’s film is he’s so antsy, which makes sense. This is a guy who missed a lot of training camp. He’s ready to get after it. A little bit of antsy with that outside arm right there. Be a little bit more patient and time it up a little better, but he’s still able to take his inside arm, his left arm, and rip through, beat the left tackle with speed, and get pressure on the quarterback. That’s what makes me so excited about Shamar Stewart. Even when it’s not a perfect rep, even when his timing is not perfect, he can still win. And when he gets timing right, when he gets his technique down, when he gets a better feel for the pro game, he’ll be an unstoppable force. All right, how about a run defense here? Stewart right there is on the left side of your screen. What we’re going to get right here for the Cincinnati Bengals is they’re going to slant their defensive lineman to the right side of your screen just like this. Everyone’s going to take the gap to their right. They’re going to bring someone off the edge right here to take that outside contain to replace Stewart’s responsibility. This is a situation here where the Eagles are running a very standard kind of zone concept just like this. Trying to get everyone taking zone tracks and trying just basically to get some dislocation of the defense and the running back to cut back behind wherever we can find a seam. And when you get a slant like this and you get these defensive linemen slanting to their gaps, there’s going to be some dislocation just by design, right? They’re all going that way. So, the running back’s going to take two steps. See all that movement and he’s going to cut right here. That means it’s on Stewart, the defensive end in the situation. He has to make the play. It has to be a tackle for loss. He’s got to check the box. Let’s check it out. All right. There’s a snap. You can see the slant up front. You can see the zone tracks for the Philadelphia Eagles offensive line. You can see the running back. He sees all that color right in his face and he gets his foot in the ground trying to get north and south. And there’s Stewart right there to finish it up. Tackle for loss. That has to happen if you run this slant. And again, this tackle does a poor job right here for Philadelphia. But if you’re the defensive end and you run the slant and you don’t make this play, if he’s able to get through this, look at this green grass. There was a lot of green grass. And the Philadelphia running backs against the Bengals defense saw a lot of green grass in their first preseason game. But this is a situation Stewart, you got to make this play. There is no excuse. You’ve got to get it done and you’ve got to do it emphatically. It’s got to be a statement. And that’s exactly what Shamar Stewart did here perfectly. check in the box. Now for the wide copy, get a good look at it at the bottom of your screen. Watch this slant right here. You can see coming off the edge of that corner, Shamar Stewart. He’s the guy that’s got to make the play cuz you can see right here, there’s that crease right up the hash right there. If you don’t make this play, now granted, the opportunity is there. It’s drawn up for you to make it, but if you don’t do it, this defense is screwed. This is an example of sometimes young players first preseason action get a little chaotic, a little over their skis, a little wild. Stewart, not the case here. Great athlete, recognized, reacts, finished with authority, good rep. All right, how about some run defense at the point of attack? There is Stewart right there on the right side of your screen. So, the Philadelphia Eagles are going a standard inside zone concept to the offensive left, the right side of your screen. They’re going to bring some pre- snap motion across the field just like this to get a little flow from the linebackers and safeties that direction. But what they’re going to do is they’re going to run simple zone blocking across the board here. Zone step here, working up zone here, zone here, cut off block on the back side. And the whole point here is to get the running back working this way. Get this defense dislocated and then cut back behind just like this. This is how it’s designed. Now, if you’re Shamar Stewart on the edge, you have got to set the edge. You cannot get reached. Number one, if you get reached, a disaster, but you also can’t get dislocated severely. A lot of defensive ends, they’re so worried about not getting reached that when the block comes to them, they widen out. They widen out and they basically create a lot of opportunities for a cutback. If you’re a defensive end, you got to shock this tackle, set the edge, force the running back inside where your help’s got to do it his job, their job. Let’s look at Stewart here. He does a phenomenal job on this play. There’s a motion. There’s a snap. You can see the zone track across the board. Let’s look at Shamar Stewart technically here. He reads it, shocks right there. Feet parallel to the line of scrimmage. Doesn’t get reached right there. Sets the edge. Perfect. And even fights back inside. Great route from Shamar Stewart. Now, his help inside is disastrously bad. And this just can’t happen, folks. I’m sorry. 49. Way too aggressive. You see how dislocated he gets right there? Too many people over here. The backside. Where is the backside? What are you doing number 70? You back door this, you cost your team. That’s disastrous. Can’t happen. 96 here on the backside. What are you doing here, man? I understand you’re worried about bootleg. Put your foot in the ground. I’m not so worried about the backside safety here. He’s kind of worrying about covering the tight end a little bit. He can’t be too aggressive. Look at these linebackers, guys. 49. Gets completely over here. Look how many guys trying to run this far over here. The only guy who’s doing his job maintaining his gap is Stewart. Shocks him in his chest, maintains his ground, forces the cut back. His help has got to make the play. This is an example where the Bengals run defense looked absolutely awful, but it wasn’t Shamar Stewart. He did his job and did it at a high level. All right, from the wide copy, you can see him at the top of the screen right here. Watch him get into his chest again. He doesn’t give up any movement. Sets the ground, sets the edge, forces the running back to cut back. This is perfect. Look at where the contact is made right on the hash. Is there any movement? No. Shamar Stewart stonewalls him right there and actually drives him about half a yard back in the backfield. This running back can’t go anywhere but cut back. This is what you want as a defense. You want your help there. But 70 tries to backdoor. It can’t happen. That just that just can’t happen, guys. Linebackers, I don’t know what they’re doing. They’re overrunning it to the extreme. I don’t know if this is coaching. I don’t know if this is personnel. I don’t know what it is. It’s the first preseason game. I’m going to try not to be too critical here, guys. I’m going to focus on the positives. Shamar Stewart, technically perfect. Feet parallel to line of scrimmage. Shoulder square. That’s how you draw it up. Great rep from the young edge defender. All right. How about some athleticism for the young rookie? There he is right there on the left side of your screen. This time he’s lined up. I’m going to call it a six eye technique on the inside eye of the tight end. You know, if he was on the outside shoulder of the tackle, I’d probably call that a five. But because he’s lined up more on the tight end, I’ll call it a six eye. This is going to be a bootleg from the Philadelphia Eagles. They’re going to fake and sell zone this direction. They’re going to fake to the running back and then work out just like this. So, Shamar Stewart, he’s got a responsibility. He’s got to respect the run. He’s got to respect the cutback. And then when he reads bootleg, he’s got to put his foot in the ground and be an athlete and pressure the quarterback. He does a phenomenal job. Let’s check it out. There’s a snap. You can see the fake zone right there. There’s the bootleg. Look at Shamar Stewart. He reads it coming. He sees it coming the entire way. Reading, reading, reading. See how he stays flat down the line of scrimmage. He doesn’t try and back door it or anything like that until he sees bootleg. Then he runs, pursues pressure on the quarterback, almost causes interception. Great work. You talk about check the box kind of plays, right? This isn’t highlight reel. This isn’t all pro. We’re not going to put you in the Hall of Fame, but this is just doing your job and doing it well and being a good athlete. Long, fast, change of direction. This is why he was drafted in the first round, right? You want him to win in one-on-one pass rush. We showed him do it earlier in this cutup, but you also got to do your job in a lot of situations, and that’s what Shamar Stewart showed against Philadelphia. Honestly, I thought he’d have some issues with the fundamental stuff, but that was actually one thing he was really good at. I think he’s got a bright future in this defense. All you get a really good look at it from the wide copy. Watch him go down the line of scrimmage. Read bootleg, foot in the ground, chase the quarterback, hands up. Look at that length, right? Nice rep. That’s what you want. That’s all you need. You get this from the backside, your defensive end, go down the line of scrimmage, respect the run. If you just go right up field on the bootleg, they’ll run it right behind you. You got to do both. Respect the run. Recognize bootleg. Chase down the quarterback. Hands up. No dumb penalties. Nice job. All right. Now, let’s talk about something Stewart needs to work on. Really, the entire Bengals defense needs to work on. There Stewart is right there on the left side of your screen. So, here you’re going to run a stunt from Cincinnati. I can’t exactly tell how it’s supposed to go. What I think supposed to happen is that Stewart is trying to bury and pick inside and allow this defensive tackle to wrap around outside. So, he’s kind of leading the charge right here. He’s threatened vertically, banging inside into this guard, freeing up this defensive tackle to loop around. That’s what I think is supposed to happen. There is a chance that this defensive tackle right here is supposed to pick inside and then Stewart’s supposed to go inside. It’s really hard to tell. The timing is all screwed up. It’s very poorly executed, but this is an example, I think, of Stewart just being a little jittery, a little first game, missed a lot of training camp. Let’s check it out. All right, there’s a snap. You can see 95 97 working up field. Stewart’s going to go inside. It looks like he’s leading the way to pick this guard so 95 95 can loop around. Let’s watch Stewart right here. Runs into the guard doing okay and then just falls slow on his face. That’s not okay. That’s That’s not good. Right. Of course, I think this is timing though. I think this is a guy who’s just a little head over his heels. He’s going full speed. He’s a He’s just kind of like a whirling dervish out there. He doesn’t know exactly what’s going on. Timing not 100% right. We showed a play earlier in the sequence about his hand foot placement timing was just a little bit off. It was a rep he actually won actually. But again, this is something I think will be cleaned up. Right. The more reps you get, you’ll figure out the time and you’ll get your hand in there. You’ll see how his hands almost miss, right? His helmet almost timing is off. His feet are completely out of uh out of alignment with what you’d want there. I think this is just a guy who’s just really amped up, really excited for his first game. Doesn’t have enough pro reps. I love his attitude there, right? He’s an edge rusher, first round pick, but he’s willing to throw his helmet in there, throw his body in there to open things up for his teammate. I love the attitude. I love the effort. I think this is something he’ll clean up with more repetition. All right, from the wide copy, you can see Steuart at the top of your screen right here. Watch him fire vertically and then go into the guard right there. That’s perfect. I think his just You see his helmet how he’s kind of like down. He just kind of falls into him. His feet give out. I think his timing is just off, folks. This is something that’ll be cleaned up. This is first preseason game jitters. Not a lot of training camp jitters. Timing is a little off. I think if you’re a Bengals fan, you’re not worried about stuff like this. More reps. We’ll clean this up. No problem. Ended up in a sack anyway. See? All’s good. That ends good. All right. Let’s talk about more point of attack run defense. And there’s Stewart right there on the right side of your screen. So, this is something that I think will get them on the field so fast for Cincinnati. It’s going to be another inside zone concept. They’re going to get motion pre- snap this way to get some flow and some freeze from the linebackers for Cincinnati. Once again, we’re going to get zone blocking right there. We’re going to get zone up here, working up to the next level, zone block there, cut off here, working up to the next level, cut off here. Right? Just basic zone stuff. Running back working this track, then trying to find a hole to cut back to. Very basic day one stuff. Stewart once again does his job. Tackle gets on him. He shocks, maintains the edge, sets the edge, doesn’t get reached, and forces the cut back. He does his job at such a high level. His teammates let him down once again, though. Let’s check it out. There’s a motion. There’s a snap inside zone track right there. All right, let’s look at Steuart right here on the right side of your screen. Shocks, feet parallel, shoulders parallel. Good extension right there. A little worried that hands are a little high. Could be a penalty, but again, from a tactical perspective, good stuff right there. Running back is running right at the tackle. Watch what the running back has to do. He takes this path, has to stop, put his foot in the ground, and cut back. That’s exactly what you want. The worst thing to happen is you get dislocated and the running back can get more vertically up the field before he cuts back. Right? You have to set the edge. Don’t give up any ground. That’s exactly what Steuart does here. Look at that length. That’s awesome, right? Great job setting the edge, doing his job there. Now, his teammates, not so much. 95 gets dislocated. 49 had a rough day right here, dude. I mean, he gets cut in the trash here. That’s not totally his fault. Bankside number 70. I mean, this is just really bad. I mean, that’s just really, really bad. That can’t happen at all. I mean, that’s just that’s just not going to fly to be totally honest. But right there, you can see Stewart does his job forcing the running back to cut back, setting the edge. Highle defensive end play here from the rookie from the wide copy. Get a really good look at it right here. Receiver in motion. Watch this tackle engaging Stewart. And immediately this tackle gets his head snapped back. No movement there. Edge is set. Running back has to slow down and cut back. That’s what you want. They’re running right at 97. They’re running right at you. You want to force the running back. He has to slow down and cut back. And that’s exactly what Stewart did here. Good technique, feet parallel to line of scrimmage. Look where the ball is snapped, folks. Where is it? Right about the 26 yard line of Cincinnati. Look where Stewart ends up engaging and holding his ground. Right at the 26, 27 yardd line, right? Gives up no ground. In fact, even blows the tackle a little bit in the back field. That’s what you want from a defensive end of the run game. Nice work from Stewart here. All right, let’s end on a play where Stewart improves his timing. There he is on the left side of your screen. And this play isn’t a win for the Cincinnati defense, but I think it’s an indication that Stewart, as he got more reps, started to figure out his foot hand placement and that kind of stuff. So, what we’re going to get here is a little bit of a stunt. We’re going to get 93 working vertically up the field and going outside. And then Stewart’s going to loop behind just like this. Very classic game, very classic stunt. See it all the time. What’s going to happen is that when it’s all said and done, because the Philadelphia Eagles are sliding the protection to the right, is that the center is going to pick up Stewart. This is a situation, it’s a quick throw. he would not have gotten there anyway, but his timing of his hand feet. He gets some pocket push. I like what I saw in terms of getting everything in terms of rhythm and speed. Let’s check it out. All right, there’s a snap. You can see the Eagles offensive line sliding to their right, the left side of your screen. You can see 93 working up the field. 97 going behind him right there. Again, not a great stunt timing wise because these two haven’t played a lot of football together. Obviously, you’d like Stewart to be a little closer, a little tighter to him. But you can see on 97, see how he’s almost like watching 93 to see where he is. This is something that when you get more reps over training camp and when you get into actual regular games, this time will be cleaned up because you’ll get more opportunities together and this will be a much tighter stunt. But he loops around, gets on the center right there, and we saw him before what happened. He kind of face planted, you just threw his helmet in there. Good effort, but just like was all over the place. Watch what he does here. Gets his hands on him, shunks the center, drives him back into the quarterback’s lap. That’s good stuff, right? Timing right, hand, foot placement, power, extension. If it had not been a quick throw, Stewart would have pushed the center into the quarterback. Now ball’s gone. It’s a touchdown. Bad day for the Bengals defense as a team. But as Stewart showed, he is getting better and better. Timing is going to be critical for him. And the more reps he got against Philadelphia and the more reps he’s going to get this preseason, I think the better he’s going to get. He’s already a super athlete. I think more playing time will allow him to just accentuate his skill set. And you see this from the wide copy. Watch him work around this stunt right here. You can see how tentative he is because he doesn’t know where this guy’s going to be. He’s almost like looking at his feet. See how he slows down there? Right? In a real when you get into live situation, this is going to be super speed. This is going to be perfectly timed. Stewart right there has to kind of like slow down and and just make sure that defensive tackle clears. But when he does, good hand placement. See that shock on the center. Remember this center sees him the entire way. This center for Philadelphia, he’s got his eyes right on Stewart. He sees him coming. Doesn’t matter. He gets shocked back. If this had been not a quick game, quick inside slant. Stewart would have drove the center right into the quarterback’s lap. Good power, good strength, good extension. Again, rough day for the Cincinnati defense giving up a touchdown there. They gave a lot of points to the Eagles. A lot of things to work on. But I tell you what, Shamar Stewart, one of the bright spots, showed a lot of flashes. I think this Bengals rookie, despite having a late start to training camp, I think he’s going to be a great player for the Cincinnati defense day

The Cincinnati Bengals got their first look at star rookie Shemar Stewart in the preseason. And Stewart looks like the real deal for the Bengals. The Cincinnati Bengals have to really like what they see in Shemar Stewart.

Check out and sign up for our FREE weekly newsletter below:
https://substack.com/@saturdaymorninginspection

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdfUn9GfyhJh5Klp0_0BOeg/join

For business inquiries contact us at: saturdaymorninginspection@gmail.com

#bengals #cincinnatibengals #whodey