Josaiah
Stewart.
Josaiah
Stewart.
Michigan· 6'1"· 249 lb
"A persistent sub-package pass rusher, his impressive collegiate production and motor will need to overcome modest arm length and questions about his run defense to find a consistent NFL role."Pre-draft read
Compact, forward-leaning edge rusher who lines up mostly as a stand-up rusher on the weak side and wins before the tackle can get set. His get-off is the engine: he times the snap, eats the cushion in two steps and forces a hard vertical set, then converts that speed into a long-arm or bull that surprises linemen who overset the corner. Hands stay active and he strings counters together.
Second gear shows up in pursuit — he chases plays down the line and closes with urgency, which is where his tackles for loss come from. Against the run he shoots gaps and slices blocks rather than holding ground, so he is a penetrator, not an anchor. The signature is relentlessness: he rushes the same way on the 55th snap as the first.
Attacking one-gap front (4-3 under or 3-4 with a designated rush package) that lets him fire upfield from a wide alignment on passing downs.
Year 1: sub-package pass rusher and core special teamer. Ceiling: high-volume third-down rusher who logs double-digit sacks in a rotation.
Two-gap 3-4 that asks the edge to set a heavy edge against down blocks and read on the move — his frame gets displaced before the play develops.
His value is tied to snaps where the offense has to pass; the more predictable the down, the better he looks.
Josaiah Stewart | Full 2024 Michigan Highlights
Senior season reel: get-off, long-arm conversions and backside pursuit.
Michigan Edge Josaiah Stewart 2025 NFL Draft Film Study
Rep-by-rep breakdown of his rush plan and counters.
Josaiah Stewart's speed is an asset | Big Ten Film Breakdown
NBC Sports breakdown of his first-step speed off the edge.
A four-year producer who built his profile the hard way, going from Sun Belt breakout to a rotational role on a national title team to a full-time disruptor in the Big Ten. His identity is simple and honest: speed-to-power off the edge, hands that keep working, and a motor that never lets a rep die. He is a rusher first, and everything else on his tape flows from that.
Production backed it up at both stops. He erupted for 12.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss as a freshman at Coastal Carolina, then had to earn snaps in Ann Arbor before finishing with 8.5 sacks and a team-high 13 tackles for loss as a senior, adding Second-team All-Big Ten honors and a Senior Bowl invite. The flags were physical and obvious: he is short by position standards with modest arm length, which showed up when tackles got into his frame first and simply walked him past the pocket, and his run defense against down blocks was a projection rather than a strength.
The board saw a sub-package rusher with a starter's motor rather than a three-down edge, and most consensus rankings landed him late Day 2. Los Angeles taking him at #90 fit a defense that rotates bodies aggressively and asks its edges to attack a gap, not two-gap. The call was about matching a specific skill to a specific job.
- 01
Explosive get-off
times the snap as well as anyone in the class and forces tackles into panic vertical sets on the first two steps.
- 02
Speed-to-power conversion
sells the outside track and then drops a long-arm or bull into the tackle's chest when he oversets the corner.
- 03
Rush plan
chains moves rather than repeating one; the counter comes on schedule instead of after he has already lost the rep.
- 04
Motor and pursuit
chases plays across the formation and finishes from the backside, which is where a chunk of his tackles for loss come from.
- 05
Proven production at two levels
12.5 sacks in the Sun Belt, then 8.5 sacks and a team-high 13 tackles for loss in the Big Ten as a senior.
- 01
Frame and length
short for the position with modest arm length, so tackles who land first get inside his chest and steer him past the quarterback.
- 02
Anchor versus the run
he slices and penetrates instead of holding the point, and down blocks can wash him out of the play entirely.
- 03
Bend at the top
his corner is more speed than true ankle flexion, and he can drift wide when the arc is not clean.
- 04
Coverage value
limited drop reps mean he is a rusher on passing downs, not a chess piece who can play in space.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Coastal Carolina | 13 | 43 | 12.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Coastal Carolina | 12 | 34 | 3.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2023 | Michigan | 15 | 33 | 5.5 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2024 | Michigan | 11 | 33 | 8.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | — | 51 | 143 | 30 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Short, powerful sub-package rusher who wins with get-off and bull rush without three-down run value.
Undersized speed rusher who turned a defined pass-rush role into double-digit sack seasons.
Rotational edge who fills snaps and produces pressure in flashes without ever seizing a starting job.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Rookie year with the Rams: 17 games, 375 defensive snaps, 21 tackles, 3.0 sacks, 21 pressures, one forced fumble, plus three postseason appearances.
The Rams handed him a defined job as a rookie and he held it. He played all 17 games in 2025 on 375 defensive snaps, most of them pass-rush reps in a rotation behind the veterans, and finished with 21 tackles, 3.0 sacks, three tackles for loss, one forced fumble and 21 total pressures with seven quarterback hits. His first sack came in Week 2 at Tennessee. Among the entire 2025 draft class he ranked in the top eight in sacks and quarterback hits, and PFF graded his pass rush at 74.0, 28th of 115 qualified edges. He added three postseason appearances on the Rams' run to the NFC Championship game.
Looking back, the pick reads exactly as advertised — no more, no less. He is a rotational rusher whose pressure rate justifies the snaps and whose run-down limitations still cap the workload, which is why he never approached starter volume. The path forward is narrow but real: if the counters keep landing and the pressures turn into finishes at a better rate, he becomes a valuable third-down piece for years. There is no realistic version where he becomes a three-down edge, and the Rams never pretended otherwise.