Shemar Stewart rookie contract standoff with Bengals explained
Shemar Stewart has yet to sign his rookie contract with the Bengals. Here’s an explanation of where the situation stands.
All eyes are on the Cincinnati Bengals‘ defensive line as training camp is set to begin July 23.
Four-time Pro Bowl defensive end and reigning NFL sacks leader Trey Hendrickson is still searching for a new contract and rookie defensive end Shemar Stewart is the lone unsigned first-round pick from April’s draft.
The Bengals and Stewart did not reach an agreement on a contract before rookies reported to camp July 19, according to The Enquirer’s Kelsey Conway.
Bengals director of personnel Duke Tobin discussed Stewart’s holdout July 21 at the team’s annual media luncheon.
“I hope Shemar (Stewart) comes in. He needs to be here,” Tobin said, according to Ben Baby of ESPN.
The holdup for Stewart, the No. 17 overall pick in April, and the Bengals continues to be a disagreement in his contract’s language over future guaranteed money. and the payout structure of his signing bonus.
“I don’t blame Shemar (Stewart). He’s listening to the advice he’s paying for. I don’t understand the advice,” Tobin said, according to Jaron May of WLWT.
Tobin added that the Bengals are trying to evolve its contract language like the majority of the league has done, according to The Enquirer’s Kelsey Conway.
Bengals owner Mike Brown said the language in Stewart’s contract that is holding up the signing involves guaranteed money in the case of “conduct detrimental to football.”
“If we get a player that gets involved in something like that, or does something that is just unacceptable, then guess what? I don’t want to pay him,” Brown said in a video posted by The Enquirer’s Kelsey Conway. “We say that if he got involved in conduct detrimental (to football), we’d have the right to terminate the guaranteed part of the back years. His agent says, ‘oh, no, you can terminate the guaranteed part only for the remaining part of the year in which the event occurred.’
“Oddly, something like this has never occurred in my memory with us,” Brown continued. “I don’t think it’s gonna occur. So, we’re sitting here arguing over something that I think is pretty remote.”
Stewart can’t report to training camp without a signed contract.
The Bengals reached an agreement on a four-year deal with second-round pick Demetrius Knight just before rookies reported to training camp.
The Enquirer will update this story.
