Bengals Rookie Shemar Stewart Talks Mistake, the Fight and What Joe Burrow Told Him After All of It

Stewart blew around Cody Ford, who was playing right tackle for Amarius Mims for most of practice, and ran toward Burrow.

“I had a one on one,” Stewart said. “And as coach Jerry (Montgomery) always says, ‘If you have a one-on-one, you better win. And that's what I did.”

Stewart was asked if he was nervous getting that close to Burrow again.

“You didn’t see me? I had a little Matrix (move),” he laughed.

Stewart kept leaning into the phrases “stacking days” and “getting 1 percent better,” and he feels he’s doing that.

“I’m trying. It’s hard, though,” he said. “This is the big league now. I'm not looking at the end goal, I'm just focused on the now, focused on getting better in the moment. And hopefully in the end, I'm where I'm supposed to be."

Where he’s supposed to be is in good enough shape to play as many snaps as the Bengals need him to on Sept. 8 in Cleveland.

“I have to get in game shape,” he said. “Of course practice is meant to get you in game shape, but the only you can get in game shape is to play in the game. I've got to get ready. My old coach used to tell me, 'Play as hard as you can as long as you can, and somebody will get you out when you're tired.' That's what I'm trying to do, just go balls to the wall.”

How far away from game shape is he?

“I ain't too far,” Stewart said. “I’ve been doing a better job with my diet and what I put into my body. So I feel a lot better than when I first came in.”

Friday was Stewart’s 12th practice after holding out through OTAs and the first week of training camp.

The difference between then and now has been remarkable.

“Coming in, it was just all raw talent and just going out there and playing,” Stewart said. “Now it's like you have to have technique to actually go out there and win consistently. The technical part is on a different level here.

“You just have to come in every day with the mindset that you have to get the technique right, my eyes right, my hands right, my feet right,” he continued. “All those things work together, and all those things help you win the game.”

Stewart said the Eagles got him twice in the first preseason game because he knew what he was supposed to do but his eyes weren’t where they needed to be.

Everything else is, if you ask Patrick, who has struggled against Stewart.

“His play speed is pretty significant,” he said. “You can tell he's starting to get comfortable. I mean, there's not too many guys who can get to full speed in two to three steps like him. It's great to practice against, and it's a great guy to work fundamentals (against) and see someone who can move like that.

“There's very few people on this planet who can cover ground like him at the line of scrimmage.” 

The most surprising thing Stewart said Friday was that becoming a starter is not his goal.

Not yet at least.

“Becoming the starter while being what I am right now, it's not going to be the best outcome,” he said. “I just want to focus on getting my technique and everything right, and one day I'll become the starter. One day I'll be what I need to be for this team.”

At the rate he’s improving, that day might not be too far off.