Bengals' Shemar Stewart pick has NFL execs disagreeing

The debate continues to rage over how the Cincinnati Bengals approached the 2025 NFL draft.

As always, the conversation starts right at the top with first-round pick Shemar Stewart, whose traits vs. production pre-draft profile set the tone for Cincinnati’s entire draft class.

Next up on this front comes from anonymous NFL executives who spoke with The Athletic’s Mike Sando, with one more than happy to point at Stewart’s lack of production (4.5 sacks in college).

“He is the epitome of a high-risk pick with bust potential,” an exec told Sando. “People are going to say Von Miller, but he doesn’t make many plays. Runs (fast), and there is no production.”

But another exec went the totally other direction, pointing out other ways to track production (like Stewart leading his team in pressures last season) and great measureables: “It is not all sack production. It is total pressures, pressure rate and then physically, it’s their three-cone, their 10-yard shuttle, broad jump, those things. The dude the Bengals took had very low sack numbers but was back there all the time.”

Yet another exec touched on the overarching theme, though, by pointing at linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. as another Bengals draft pick proving the team wants to lean heavily on traits right now while developing incomplete, but high-upside prospects.

As Bengals fans are fully aware by now, this approach to the draft mirrors the overall offseason for the Bengals — a team adamant that a youth movement on defense and new coaches in key areas like defense and offensive line will unlock many of the underperforming elements of the current roster.

This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals’ Shemar Stewart pick has NFL execs disagreeing

Bengals’ Shemar Stewart pick has NFL execs disagreeing

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