Shemar Stewart’s rookie year is starting to look less like a slow burn and more like a hard stop.
For a player taken 17th overall, the path to relevance in Cincinnati has gotten awfully cramped. The Bengals already handed Boye Mafe the biggest contract among their free-agent additions, then spent a second-round pick on Texas A&M teammate Cashius Howell at the same position. That alone says plenty about where Stewart stands in the team’s plans.
And the snap counts have only sharpened the picture. Stewart played zero snaps in Week 3 and just four snaps this past Sunday. For a second-year first-rounder, that’s a brutal place to be.
There was always going to be patience required here. Stewart dealt with injuries as a rookie, and he also had a contract dispute before he even got rolling.
But the bigger issue is that, even when he’s been available, he hasn’t forced his way onto the field. The Bengals have a loaded defensive line, and they’ve had every chance to work him back up to speed.
Instead, he’s still stuck behind Mafe, Murphy, Howell and Cedric Johnson.
That’s a tough reality for a player with Stewart’s physical profile. At 6'5", 267 pounds, the 22-year-old is a freakish athlete with explosive traits that jump off the page. The testing backed that up too: he scored a 10.00 #RAS out of a possible 10.00, ranking 1 out of 2029 DE from 1987 to 2025.
But the problem has always been turning that athletic ceiling into production. At Texas A&M, Stewart finished with only 4.5 sacks in three seasons.
He was also a missed tackles machine for the Aggies, and that hasn’t translated into the kind of consistent, game-ready value Cincinnati needs. He’s not even showing up as a dependable edge-setter against the run.
There’s still a chance Week 5 in Miami gives him a little runway. The Dolphins are, at least on paper, the easiest opponent left on the Bengals’ schedule. A lopsided game could open the door for backups, and maybe Stewart gets a chance to make a pun-intended splash in South Beach.
But the more likely outcome is the one Cincinnati has been drifting toward already: Stewart stays on the sideline, the tools stay theoretical, and the opportunity keeps shrinking. At this point, he hasn’t played enough to even feel like a realistic trade piece.
That leaves the Bengals in a messy spot with a former first-round pick who still has the athletic gifts, but not much of a role. Unless Stewart suddenly takes a huge leap, the bust watch is only getting louder.
In Other News...
Joe Burrow Gave Bengals Fans A Laugh They Really Needed
The Bengals early-season momentum has hit a rough patch, with two straight losses sending the mood around the team from upbeat to uneasy. As Cincinnati tries to reset before its next trip against the Miami Dolphins, Joe Burrow offered a small reminder that not every tense stretch has to stay tense for long.
During a recent press conference, Burrow gave reporters and fans a laugh when he reacted to the word galled with apparent unfamiliarity. It was a light moment in a week when the Bengals could use one, and it briefly shifted attention away from the skid and back to the quarterbacks quick wit as Cincinnati looks to stop the slide. [Read more 🡒]
Joe Burrow Is Pushing A Bengals Offensive Change That Still Isn't Working
The Bengals have spent time trying to build more of their offense from under center, a shift that was supposed to add variety and help them find another gear. It showed up in their game plan again before the recent loss to the Jaguars, but as the game unfolded, Cincinnati moved away from it and leaned back on what has long been more familiar.
Joe Burrow said the team is still committed to giving that approach more reps, even if the execution is not there yet. There are other moving parts for Cincinnati too, with Bryce Young potentially in line for more snaps because of injuries among the top receivers, while the defense continues to deal with problems covering and tackling tight ends. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Loss Still Revealed One Encouraging Change On Defense
Even in a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars that left Cincinnati at 2-2, there was at least one defensively encouraging sign buried in the result. The Bengals got more consistent disruption from the front, with Boye Mafe, Dexter Lawrence and Jonathan Allen combining for 12 pressures as the pass rush showed it could affect the pocket in multiple ways.
Jonathan Allen stood out as the most disruptive piece of the group, leading the defense in pressures and earning the top defensive grade in the game. For a Bengals defense looking for steadier impact up front, that kind of production offered a glimpse of what the unit can look like when the line is winning individual matchups, even if the overall scoreboard outcome still went the wrong way. [Read more 🡒]