Chris Simms Praises Bengals First Round Pick Shemar Stewart: 'He Could Be One of the Best Pass Rushers in Football'

Simms had Stewart ranked as the No. 2 edge rusher in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Oct 28, 2023; College Station, Texas, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks offensive lineman Jakai Moore (55) blocks Texas A&M Aggies defensive lineman Shemar Stewart (4) during the second quarter at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images | Dustin Safranek-Imagn Images

CINCINNATI — The Bengals took Texas A&M defensive end Shemar Stewart in the first round (17th overall) of the 2025 NFL Draft.

Chris Simms of NBC Sports had Stewart as his second ranked edge rusher in this class. He's bullish on the newest member of the Bengals' defensive front.

"First off is he is a physical freak. I look at him and go, this is one of the safest picks in the draft," Simms said in an exclusive interview. "It doesn't matter who he plays against, what team the Bengals are playing. You're not going to have to worry about Shamar Stewart going, 'oh man, we might get overpowered this week or we got a real mismatch issue'. His floor is like, 'oh, he's our starting defensive end for the next five or six years and he's a good player.' I like that aspect, let alone his ceiling is as high as anybody in the draft. He could be a superstar. He could be Myles Garrett. He could be one of the best pass rushers in football."

The superstar potential is one thing, but the high floor is another. Stewart is so physically gifted and he has a great attitude—there's no reason why he can't make a major contribution to the Bengals' defensive front right away. He only had 1.5 sacks last season, but he made an impact.

"Disruption is production. I have a thing, what I call on my podcast, ‘F the play up.’ There's too many plays or too many great players in football who ruined the design of the play and somebody gets the tackle and I want to go, 'OK, great. He made the tackle,'" Simms said. "The star of the play is the guy who ruined everything and sometimes that gets lost in translation a little bit with the fans because we're stat line readers where we just look at the bottom line and go, oh, he had a sack or he had a tackle. He must be really good. No, and so there is value in that and I see him disrupt a ton of plays, so I love that. I love the physical ability. I love the size. He's never going to have an issue with anybody there and then I also love the untapped potential. That's what's there too."

Stewart led the Aggies with 39 pressures last season. Watch our full conversation with Simms below:

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