The Cincinnati Bengals made former first-round pick Shemar Stewart inactive 90 minutes ahead of kickoff in Baltimore on Oct. 25.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor explained the decision to make Stewart, who isn’t currently dealing with an injury, a healthy scratch ahead of an important AFC North game.
“He's doing all the right things,” Taylor said Oct. 26. “He's getting better every week. (He missed) training camp for the most part. So, to get him back, I think he's been doing a great job of practicing. We're just in a really tough spot with our inactives right now. Sometimes we're really healthy. Sometimes we're beat up at a position where we need another guy up. So, unfortunately, we just had to pull from the d-line, and it's a really deep d-line group, and it's really difficult to choose who's going to be inactive there.”
The decision from Taylor came as a surprise to most outside of the building and elicited an emotional response from fans on social media. Here’s why:
Cincinnati drafted Stewart with the No. 17 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Stewart didn’t have a ton of production at the college level, and so the pick wasn’t well received by pundits who cover the Bengals and fans locally. Stewart recorded 4.5 sacks during his three years at Texas A&M.
He was picked because of his upside and athleticism. Stewart is 6-foot-5, 267 pounds and ran a 4.5 40-yard dash.
Stewart’s pre-draft profile on NFL.com read as follows: “The lack of production relative to the traits is a concern; still, players who move like him are highly coveted. While the boom-or-bust label might be in play, it feels like a matter of time before it all starts to click at a high level.”
Fans wanted a player with a stronger resume.
Before Stewart ever arrived in Cincinnati, the pick elicited a lot of raised eyebrows externally. That’s normal when a prospect is widely viewed as a “boom-or-bust” selection. Then, things took a turn for the worse.
Stewart decided to sit out the 2025 rookie minicamp and the voluntary offseason program and then missed the first week of training camp with an injury. Stewart did not participate in the Bengals’ offseason in his rookie season because of a contract dispute with the club. The Bengals and Stewart came to an agreement months later, and he started practicing three days after the start of camp.
Due to the time missed on the field that offseason, Stewart entered the season behind where the team wanted and needed him to be. Then, as he was starting to hit his stride, he suffered an ankle injury in Week 2 and missed three games.
Stewart battled back from the ankle injury and then suffered a knee injury in early November. He missed a month and played in a total of just eight games in his rookie season, recording one sack.
After the 2025 season, the Bengals were hopeful to maximize all of their time with Stewart in the offseason. Stewart was excited to enter the season with no distractions and fully participated in the offseason program. Then, on the first day of training camp practice in late July, Stewart hyperextended his knee. He was out for the entire preseason and missed the first two games of this season.
During that time, players like Cedric Johnson and Cashius Howell climbed the depth chart and took Stewart’s spot. He has yet to solidify his place in the defensive line rotation and beat out Howell and Johnson.
This means unless an injury happens on the defensive line, it could be a while before Stewart gets meaningful snaps. The Bengals are trying to win now, and Taylor must play the players he feels 100% confident in. And right now, there’s just not enough reps of Stewart for the coaching staff to feel that way.
Given where the Bengals selected Stewart, it’s not ideal for Taylor to keep one of his top draft picks on the bench. But it’s a decision he feels comfortable with right now.
“(We are going to) keep encouraging him because he's doing everything the right way, and he's really making the progress,” Taylor said. “I don't want to do that every week, but we're going to have to be creative with where we pull from. That's just that's just part of it.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Zac Taylor explains why Shemar Stewart was inactive vs. Ravens