Starting a month or so ago, Texas A&M football’s Shemar Stewart began to become an object of discussion among NFL draft diehards as a guy who could shoot up big boards with a strong combine performance. While his production at A&M has not been sky-high by any means, he’s always been one of the most physically talented players in the program.
With his performance now complete at the NFL combine, Stewart has delivered on that promise and then some. In fact, he may have just showed out with the most impressive combine performance of all time.
The numbers he has put up in Indy are reminiscent of another former Texas A&M football defensive end, as a matter of fact— one who went as the first overall selection.
Texas A&M edge rusher Shemar Stewart recorded a 1.58-second 10-yard split (4.59o), tied for the second-fastest split by any defender over 265 pounds over the last 15 years.
Stewart has a similar size and athletic profile to Myles Garrett.
Of course, the production for the two while in college has been far different, but more than ever, we are seeing GMs draft on projection as much as production. Stewart has been raw during his time in the college ranks, but he certainly has all the rare qualities you’d hope to see in a guy at his position. In other words, he well could develop into a monster at the next level.
As you can see from the above post, Stewart’s Relative Athletic Score is one of the best we’ve ever seen at any position. That alone is enough to whip up some major discussions about how high Stewart could rise in this upcoming draft.
While Travis Hunter seems to be the guy who will go first overall, we’ve seen players like Shemar rise in years like this before. Hunter is not a knock-down, drag-out number one like we’ve seen in other drafts, though he is eminently talented. If this performance gets enough GMs talking, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Stewart in that conversation come draft time.