Insider Notes on Texas A&M and Texas’ Pro Day: Latest on Shemar Stewart, Texans’ rising interest in Kelvin Banks, and more
Scouts are in College Station for Texas A&M pro day as the Aggies have a trio of top flight defensive linemen. Here’s an early report on what’s taking place.
The Texas A&M pro-day is still going on at the time of posting and I’ll have more on the workout tomorrow. But the big news early on is defensive end/edge rusher Shemar Stewart, who turned in an Olympian workout at the combine but did not participate in position drills, watched the day’s events in street clothes.
Though no one expected Stewart to participate in any of the testing, the decision not to partake in position drills is a bit disconcerting to teams. As I’ve been reporting in interviews, teams are concerned Stewart, who left Senior Bowl practices early, is a straight line athlete that struggles changing direction or bending the edge.
After his testing in Indianapolis, I asked several teams how someone so athletic only produced 1.5 sacks during the 2024 season. The answer was Stewart’s inability to change direction or quickly redirect to the quarterback ultimately led to multiple missed sacks and missed opportunities. In essence they said he needs a direct line to make a play on the ball. Comparisons were made to Vernon Gholston, the eight pick of the draft by the New York Jets in 2008, who turned into a first round flop.
I’ll have more on Thursday’s pro day workouts later on.
MORE ON TEXAS PRO DAY
In my report on Tuesday’s pro day at Texas, I mentioned offensive lineman Kelvin Banks looked outstanding in position drills. Now comes word the Houston Texans have been all over Banks and shadowed him during the workout. The question is will Banks be available to Texans when they are called to the clock with the 25th pick? That answer is unlikely. The follow up question- does the team like Banks enough to trade up and secure him in the first round? We’ll find out soon enough.
Also- I mentioned offensive tackle Cameron Williams would hold a pro-day workout on April 14 and that was incorrect. The workout will take place the week of April 14th, possibly on the 16th, the day before Jalen Walker and Mykel Williams hold a workout for scouts. Williams initially hurt his knee against Georgia during the first match-up between the Longhorns and Bulldogs back on October 19. He chose to play the rest of the season and had his knee scoped after the Longhorns lost to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the semifinal round of the college football playoffs.
I failed to mention the number of bigwigs at the UT pro-day but the names included Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles, head coach Ben Johnson, defensive coordinator Dennis Allen and offensive coordinator Declan Doyle along with the teams running back coach, offensive line coach and receivers coach. Denver Broncos defensive line coach Jamar Cain was on hand as was Cleveland Browns offensive line coach Mike Bloomgren. Miami Dolphins general manager Chris Grier was in attendance and the division rival New York Jets had head coach Aaron Glenn as well as general manager Darren Mougey on the field. Jets also had their offensive line and quarterback coach in attendance. The Patriots brought most of their front office and coaching staff including Matt Groh, Marshall Oium, Mike Vrabel, Terrell Williams and Eliot Wolf. Les Snead of the Rams was at the workout as was Kellen Moore of the Saints, Omar Khan and Mike Tomlin of the Steelers, Nick Cesario and DeMeco Ryans of the Texans.