The Cincinnati Bengals are aiming to get back to the playoffs in the 2025 NFL season, but they’ll need their young defensive players to step up. Still, Bleacher Report expects one of their new additions on defense to face a tough challenge.
Cincinnati extended Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase this offseason, meaning that, along with Joe Burrow’s new contract, the Bengals have a lot of money tied up on offense. That means the team needs to make the most of their draft picks, since rookies come in on inexpensive contracts.
At the 2025 NFL Draft, the Bengals went defense with their first-round pick, selecting Texas A&M’s Shemar Stewart 17th overall. Over three seasons at Texas A&M, Stewart posted 4.5 sacks, 65 tackles, and one forced fumble, numbers that may not inspire much confidence.
Cincinnati need help on defense now that their offensive core is locked up, but that level of production doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that the 21-year-old edge rusher will make an immediate impact as a rookie.
As a result, Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox predicts that Stewart will be a bust as a newcomer to Zac Taylor’s team.
“It feels increasingly likely that Cincinnati Bengals rookie first-round pick Shemar Stewart is going to disappoint in 2025,” Knox wrote. “The Bengals are partly to blame for that.
“Cincinnati desperately needed to add defensive help this offseason and took a chance on Stewart with the 17th overall pick in April’s draft. However, the Texas A&M product was always viewed as a raw and potentially risky player.”
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Last season, Trey Hendrickson recorded 17.5 sacks, but his production wasn’t enough to push the Bengals into the playoffs. Furthermore, there’s the possibility that Cincinnati won’t have their standout pass rusher for the 2025 season, as he stated in May that he is unhappy with how the contract extension process is going and could be on the way out.
“With the lack of communication post-draft made it imminently clear to my party — meaning my wife, my son and my agent, a small group of people — that I had (to) inform that this might not work out,” Hendrickson said in May (h/t The Athletic). “I don’t think it was necessary. I think we should have all hoped for the best until proven otherwise.”
If Hendrickson isn’t in the Bengals’ defense to start the season, it puts more pressure on Stewart to be a productive player come Week 1.
All rookies go through a learning experience, but Cincinnati might be putting the young pass rusher in a difficult spot where he has to adapt quickly. That could lead to him being a bust this season.
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