Zac Taylor on Shemar Stewart being inactive: He's making progress, but we have a deep group

Published October 26, 2026 05:51 PM The decision to make defensive end Shemar Stewart a healthy scratch on Sunday was the subject of a question for Bengals head coach Zac Taylor at a Monday press conference. Stewart was a first-round pick in 2025, so seeing him on the inactive list would seem to be a negative sign for his development to this point in his career. Taylor noted that Stewart missed time with a knee injury he suffered this summer and said the second-year player is “doing all the right things,” but got caught in a numbers game due to how much depth the team has up front on defense. “It’s a really deep D-line group and it’s really tough to choose who’s gonna be inactive there,” Taylor said. “Keep encouraging him because he’s doing everything the right way and he’s really making the progress we’re hoping to see. I don’t want to do that every week, but we’re gonna have to be creative with where we pull from. That’s just part of it.”The Bengals had nine defensive linemen active on Sunday, so, progress or not, Stewart is pretty low on the depth chart relative to his draft status. If that doesn’t change in the coming weeks, there will likely be more questions about what kind of future he has in Cincinnati.