When it was reported Shemar Stewart from Texas A&M would be at Halas Hall for a 30 visit on Monday the collective groans in social media from Bears fans seemed to echo for minutes.
Bears fans may have been even less concerned over the reports one player who was slated for a 30 visit, Texas’ Isaiah Bond, surrendered to police over a sexual assault charge that he denies
It’s been this way throughout the NFL, actually, when they find out their team is looking at Stewart.
He might be one of the most unpopular or polarizing players to come into an NFL draft in years because of the combination of his 4 1/2 career sack numbers for Texas A&M and his RAS (relative athletic score).
No defensive lineman has ever had a higher RAS, a number measuring speed, strength, athleticism based on their testing. He had a 10 out of 10 in RAS after a 4.58-second 40, 40-inch vertical leap and 10-foot-11 broad jump as a 6-foot-5 3/4, 267-pound player.
He has the workout warrior tag, but the lack of sacks is alarming.
No defensive lineman has ever had a higher RAS, a number measuring speed, strength, athleticism based on their testing. He had a 10 out of 10 in RAS after a 4.58-second 40, 40-inch vertical leap and 10-foot-11 broad jump as a 6-foot-5 3/4, 267-pound player.
He has the workout warrior tag, but the lack of sacks is alarming.
The visit report had the meme people working overtime with ways to generate expressions of angst. The best might have been one equating it to a Shea McClellin draft day experience. McClellin was 19th overall in 2012 by Bears GM Phil Emery and left after 7 1/2 sacks in four seasons.
Emery left after three drafts.
Also alarming for some was his comment at the combine.
“I would say, sometimes the stats don’t tell the whole story,” Stewart said. “It’s all about the film. And when you look at the film, you can really see what’s going on for the most part.
“Production is a little overrated.”
Production overrated?
Looking at career sack totals for college isn’t always a good measuring stick.
Danielle Hunter had exactly the same number of sacks as Stewart in college but in the NFL he has only had three seasons in nine when he didn’t get to double digits for sacks and five times has had 12 or more.
Pro Football Focus saw Stewart as particularly active last year with 39 pressures in 315 pass rush snaps, and his ability to stop the run has never been questioned. In fact, it has been outstanding.
With the 10th pick in the draft you hope for more.
There is a player like Stewart in the second round, with a very high RAS and run-stopping ability and that’s Arkansas edge Landon Jackson. He didn’t have a lot of sacks, either, but 16 in four seasons is at LSU and Arkansas isn’t terrible, and he did make 28 tackles for loss.
No one seriously talks about Jackson as a high first-round pick, though. If the Bears drafted Jackson in Round 2, they’d probably be matching value to talent.
It’s different at No. 10 in Round 1.
At this spot in the draft, there would be plenty of worries the Bears had found the new Michael Haynes or Vernon Gholston, impressive players coming out of college who did nothing in the NFL. The Bears took Haynes 14th in Round 1 and he was cut prior to their Super Bowl season of 2006. Gholston came to the Jets highly touted, sixth overall, and never made an NFL sack.
There would be worries they had just found the new K’Lavon Chaisson, a 20th overall pick who has 10 sacks in five seasons. Or maybe he’s the new Clelin Ferrell, a fourth overall pick out of Clemson by the Raiders who has 17 sacks six seasons and three seasons later.
If they traded back to take him, there still might be concerns he’s the new L.J. Collier, an edge taken 29th by Seattle who has had six sacks in six seasons for.
The Wire Sports has an interesting look at all of Stewart’s production in college and draws comparisons to past players but pretty much concludes the same thing about him: He would be fine for a good team to take a chance on late in Round 1.
However, it’s really a total roll of the dice for a team like the Bears to draft him in the top part of Round 1.
Stewart would be a decent tradeback option in Round 1with a baseline as an end who will be stopping the run, provided they traded back far enough.
Then again, they could get the same thing in Round 2 with Jackson and he’ll even make an occasional sack.
It’s better to treat the Stewart 30 visit as the Bears doing their due diligence, like former Bears GM Jerry Angelo used to like to say.
Anything more is enough to cause an upset stomach and visions of Haynes or Gholston.