Shemar Stewart Is Proving the Bengals Right

The NFL is a league known for its parity.  It’s a league where worst-to-first is commonplace, and where playoff spots are open to even the longest of long shots.  The NFL has worked hard to build an environment where every fanbase can dream of a Super Bowl – even if that team just went through a season (or seasons) of hell.

However, just because the league is designed to prop up the bottom-feeders and topple the titans, the playing field is far from level.  The rules encourage randomness, but some teams have figured out a few ways to circumvent the flukiness of the NFL.  And others…well, some other teams are stuck in football’s Stone Age.

The Bengals, without question, are one of those latter teams.  Their reputation precedes them.  The Bengals are known for their frugality, but it goes beyond just simple penny-pinching.  For the majority of NFL teams, winning goes above all else.  No stone is left unturned, no crazy idea discarded.  The pursuit of winning encompasses every action.

In Cincinnati though, the pursuit of winning stands distinctly behind the pursuit of profits.  The Bengals are a money-making enterprise, first and foremost.  It’s not that the Bengals ownership and front office wouldn’t like to win; it just comes after winning financially.

The Bengals have a long and sordid history of – for lack of a better word – cheapness, and Bengals players are more than aware.  Carson Palmer, famously, was so sick of the Bengals intolerable situation that he chose to retire rather than play another down for Mike Brown.  Dan Wilkinson threw a fit in 1997 after being franchised tagged and the Bengals eventually traded him to Washington.  Corey Dillon and Takeo Spikes couldn’t wait to leave Cincinnati.  In the last two off-seasons alone, the Bengals have gotten into contract-spats with Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Trey Hendrickson, three of their very best players.  No team likes to antagonize its own like the Bengals.

Now, in the midst of the 2025 offseason, the Bengals are, once again, in the middle of multiple contract disputes.  It’s the NFL equivalent of a recurring nightmare.  Trey Hendrickson is still unhappy with his current deal, and has gone to great lengths to voice his displeasure.  At the very least, this quarrel was seen coming.  Nobody, however, could have predicted how ugly things would get between the Bengals and their first-round pick Shemar Stewart.

These days, it’s a rarity to see rookies remain unsigned for extended periods of time.  The rookie wage scale, implemented in 2011, has, for the most part, removed the negotiation element.  What a player makes is determined by their draft position.  There are finer details that can be haggled and hammered out, but for the most part, the framework for every deal is already in place.

With Stewart, though, the Bengals are running into a new problem – and while it’s a problem of their own creation, it’s not necessarily their fault either.

The Bengals want to include new language in Stewart’s contract that would protect them from paying out future guarantees if Stewart defaults (aka, gets arrested, suspended, etc.).  Previously, the contracts the Bengals have been handing out only protected them for a single season – this new version protects them for the entire life of the contract.

It’s reasonable enough that the Bengals would want some language like this.  It’s also reasonable that Stewart and his representation would balk.  What isn’t reasonable, however, is Stewart refusing to practice, or even remain at the Bengals mandatory minicamp.

Stewart, notably, had just 1.5 sacks in his last college season.  In fact, he never had more than 1.5 sacks in any college season.  Stewart is the epitome of boom-or-bust – he has all the traits, and none of the production.  Arguably no player needs more practice time and seasoning, and because he has so far refused to sign his injury waiver to get on the practice field while his contract is hammered out, his growth is stagnating.

One could argue that Stewart is in the right for taking a stand.  In his defense, this language was not included in the Bengals first-round pick from last year Amarius Mims, and Mims was taken one spot later than where Stewart was taken.  Why should Stewart have to be the guinea pig?

On the other hand, this contract language isn’t new or unique.

Both the pick directly before Stewart and the pick immediately after have this contract language included in their deals.  It’s the same story for the majority of first-rounders.  And what makes this even more frustrating is Stewart isn’t even the only rookie facing this impasse with his team – he’s just the only one not participating.

Three other first-round picks (now that the Bill's Maxwell Hairston signed his contract two days ago) including number two overall selection Travis Hunter, remain unsigned due to this exact negotiation.  The difference is, those other four players signed their injury waiver and are on the practice field honing their craft.  Stewart, meanwhile, is just vegetating.

Obviously, it’s gotten quite hard over the years to give the Bengals the benefit of the doubt.  This is, after all, the same team that for years wouldn’t provide Gatorade or bottled water to their players and re-used old jock straps.  Their reputation precedes them.  It’s easy to chalk this situation up to another example of the Bengals being cheap and trying to pull a fast one on a poor, helpless rookie.

But Stewart isn’t really in a position to be so demanding.  If anything, his behavior makes a clause like the one the Bengals want to include even more necessary.  This clause exists to protect the team against unreliable (and potentially felonious) players – and right now, is there a player in the NFL with more question-marks than Shemar Stewart?

There’s an easy resolution to this: sign the injury waiver and get on the practice field.  Stewart is well within his rights to scoff at the Bengals contract plans, but underdeveloped players need to be practicing, and underdeveloped describes Stewart to a T.  If he really wants the Bengals to change their minds, he should get on the field and show them what they’re missing.

More than likely, this will be resolved when Stewart and his representation finally come to their senses and agree to the contract that’s been presented to them.  Besides, as long as Stewart avoided getting arrested or suspended – like the vast majority of NFL players do – he has nothing to fear from this default clause anyway.  By all accounts, Stewart is a good kid with a bright future.  Why he would potentially derail his own career over a minor detail is a bizarre line of thinking.

If Stewart wants to play chicken with the Bengals, go for it.  But if he thinks his leverage is stronger than Palmer’s or Hendrickson’s or Higgins’ or any of the number of Bengals players (past and present) who have been in contract disputes with the team, he’s sorely and regrettably mistaken.  The Bengals don’t blink.  And in this specific case, at least, Stewart is lacking a strong moral high-ground.  It may be unfair that Stewart is being put in this position that previous Bengals rookies were fortunate enough to avoid, but by refusing to practice, Stewart is proving the Bengals point.