I think this was meant for me,
@Da-Rock is taking a stray here for just sharing the definition.
It's all good.
But let's not fall back on being "positive."
What exactly is it that you've seen from Steward that makes you think he can take on the starter role and approximate the production we've got from a top 10 DE (last year)?
It was meant for you, and I apologize for being harsh and angry about it. It's just that it's frustrating to be told not to do something when I felt that I was only hyping up Stewart, Johnson, and the edge rushing UDFAs who showed potential.
As far as the UDFA edge rushers, honestly, looking at Wesley Bailey's (Louisville) and Eddie Walls III's (Houston) highlights made me a believer in both of them; they're extremely athletic and lengthy edge rushers who can bend, have solid hands usage for their limited experience - Bailey being a Canadian and new to the game, and EW3 being a double transfer from smaller schools, are pretty damned strong (Walls had 22 bench reps and Bailey had 27), and just seemed loaded with potential. Plus there's Payton Zdroik (Air Force) whom I'd personally
love to see what he could do with both stand-up and in the dirt on the edge - he's listed as a DT, but he's small for the position (5'11", 270 lbs.) - because he's
super athletic and strong.
(I also love two of the cornerbacks we got (Al'zillion Hamilton, Fresno State and Nyzier Fourqurean, Wisconsin) and really,
really, REALLY love the running back we picked up (Dean Connors, Houston), but that's neither here nor there.)
But I digress. What I've seen from Stewart is potential and the potential to grow. Despite being the obvious third wheel to Young and Verse, he still was around the pace where Young was in his rookie year (and let's not forget that Young benefitted a lot from AD playing in his rookie year, getting clean-up sacks).
Stewart, from what little I saw, had better hands-usage than Young did as a rookie (and to Young's credit, he's
very much improved in terms of the technical details of the position from his rookie year). Yes, he only had three sacks, but his sacks weren't a matter of cleaning up (for example, the sack against the Titans where he did a full speed rush, swiped away the hands of the left tackle, and sacked Ward, the sack against the Jaguars where he pushed the pocket and did an excellent spin move to get to Lawrence, and for his third, beat a tight end chip and the left tackle to get a strip sack on the Cardinals in the second game against them that flipped possession).
He's also been fairly good in coverage, nearly got a pick against the Whiners, multiple pass deflections by getting his hands up, getting tackles for a loss, and he's had multiple pressures that have had an effect on the game.
He put on a clinic against the Cardinals in their first game, as proven by this breakdown:
Is he perfect? No. But he had a much better year than people wish to give him credit for. He was far from the best rookie edge rusher, but he definitely showed a lot of potential to excel in a bigger role. He's not the freak athlete Byron Young is, but he's really close, and I think this year will be his breakthrough year.
