Cincinnati Bengals rookie Shemar Stewart accidentally hit franchise quarterback Joe Burrow in practice on Aug. 13. Stewart fell and Burrow landed on the ground but quickly popped back up.
This play resulted in a dust up between Bengals’ guard Lucas Patrick and Stewart. There’s an unofficial NFL rule that no one on the team should ever touch the quarterback during practice.
Stewart didn’t purposefully hit Burrow, but Patrick and center Ted Karras believed he should have been more careful and that’s what led to the scuffle.
Following practice, Stewart made sure to go up to Burrow to apologize. And Burrow wanted to make one thing clear when accepting Stewart’s apology.
“You know it’s cool, as long as you do it on Sundays too,” Stewart recalled of his conversation with Burrow. “We just forgot about it.”Since he found his way onto the field following a contract holdout that forced him to miss the entire offseason and first three days of training camp practice, Stewart has been a bright spot for Cincinnati’s defense.
Defensive coordinator Al Golden has ramped his playing time with the starters up over the course of the last week in practice. Myles Murphy is dealing with an injury and hasn’t participated in Cincinnati’s last two practices, which also gives Stewart more reps.
The Bengals want and need him to be an impact player right away when the regular season starts so the more playing time he gets with the starting defense, the better.
Stewart played 18 snaps in the Bengals’ first preseason game and recorded one tackle for loss. There are still areas of his game he needs to clean up and he’s still learning the entire playbook, but he certainly looks the part through 15 practices and one exhibition game.
For Stewart, his physical skillset and play speed are two traits that can’t be taught. There’s a reason he was one of the most polarizing draft prospects. His ability to move his 6-foot-5, 270-pound frame as quick as he does is rare.
His speed and toughness have been on display in almost every practice he’s participated in. The next step for him is to nail his technique so he’s got a counter when the premiere offensive linemen around the league block him.
The Bengals believe if they can coach him up, he could become a menace on Cincinnati’s defensive line. Stewart recognizes this is an area he needs and wants to improve in.
“Coming in, it was just all raw talent and just go out there and play,” Stewart said. “Now, you actually have to have technique to go out there and win consistently so you know the technical part is on a different level here. You just have to come in with a mindset that I need to get my technique right, my eyes right, my hands right and my feet right because all of those things work together.”
One of the Bengals’ weak spots on defense in the last two seasons has been the lack of production from their edge rushers. Outside of Pro Bowl defensive end Trey Hendrickson, Cincinnati isn’t getting enough from its pass rush. Hendrickson accounted for 17.5 of the Bengals’ 36 total sacks.
In hopes of addressing this problem, the Bengals hired a new defensive line coach in addition to firing former defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo and bringing in Golden.
The team is betting on Stewart to produce right away in addition to development from players such as Myles Murphy and Joseph Ossai. They believe if that group takes a step forward with the addition of TJ Slaton on the inside, they could be much better.
But for Stewart to be ready to go come Sept. 7 when the Bengals travel to Cleveland to take on the Browns in Week 1, he needs to make the most of the next two preseason games and that’s what he plans to do.
“Just trying to go out there and have a better game than I had last game,” Stewart said. “I didn’t feel like I did much last game. I just want to go out there and play dominant, fast and physical.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Shemar Stewart reveals what Joe Burrow said after accidentally hitting him in practice
Reporting by Kelsey Conway, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
