When NFL historians peer back into the decade of the 2020s years from now, there will be a lot of themes for them to dive into. The Kansas City Chiefs' sustained dominance for the front half (and hopefully more) of the decade, the Buffalo Bills seemingly cementing their place as the "can't get over the hump" franchise of multiple centuries, Lamar Jackson's extremely rare allergic reactions to playoff football.
One thing they will certainly scratch their heads at, though, will be the Cincinnati Bengals' supernova-esque burst onto the scene with Joe Burrow, followed by their swift, subsequent decline.
The Bengals' book is certainly not written on the Burrow era, but the trend of botching contract negotiations with defensive players is a theme that could derail the Bengals’ once-high aspirations to be perennial Super Bowl contenders. The Bengals are already in a very public contract standoff with All-Pro defensive end Trey Hendrickson, and now have another defensive player at odds with their front office when it comes to compensation.
The issue with this one? First-round pick Shemar Stewart has yet to even don a Bengals jersey in minicamp, let alone a game, yet he's already refusing to take the field during rookie minicamp due to an issue with his contract.
While the contract hang-up for Stewart seems like a small one—the Bengals reportedly came into contract talks on Stewart's rookie deal with a lowball offer on the percentage of his pay that would be paid out in a training camp bonus—it is still a symptom of a much larger, much more baffling issue in Cincinnati. How is it that the Bengals, who have had no issue offering the world to their offensive trio—Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins—can't seem to get a defensive deal right to save their lives?
Our hilarious AFC little brothers are at it again with another disgruntled defensive player awaiting an acceptable contract from the team.
Did the Bengals’ front office look at Twitter (er, X, the everything app) on draft night and have second thoughts? Maybe they too realized that they had selected a player who looked the part (6'6", 290 lbs, long arms, explosive off the ball at the Combine and Senior Bowl) but did not actually produce much at one of the highest levels in college football in the SEC. Stewart registered one full sack (0.5 against Florida in 2024 and 0.5 against Auburn in 2023) in SEC play in his final two seasons at Texas A&M, generating a lot of buzz about whether or not he could actually produce at the next level, or if he was just a physical freak who would be more of a project player.
Well, the Bengals ripped the Band-Aid off and made the selection just after the halfway point of the first round of this year's draft, but saying "and they didn't look back" might be a misclassification at this point. News popped up that Stewart was holding out of Bengals' rookie minicamp last week. To be fair, he was in attendance but did not participate, which somehow feels worse than not being there at all. The issue? The Bengals botched his percentage of training camp bonus money, with Stewart's offer coming in lower than the Bengals’ 2024 first-round pick.
This is an easy fix—just up the number and get the kid signed. But do we honestly trust the Bengals’ front office to figure that out at this point? You would have a better opportunity to run an NFL front office by asking ChatGPT how to maneuver salary cap situations at this point than to rely on Duke Tobin to figure it out. To whomever issued the fake (but clearly believable) memorandum to the Bengals' front office that defensive football players could not be extended or paid the same as offensive players—we salute you.
Five years ago, the Bengals' defense was young and mostly inked to several years’ worth of team control and under the tutelage of noted Andy Reid antagonist Lou Anarumo. Now? In this offseason alone, their ownership and front office have publicly alienated a guy who has 36.5 sacks in the last two seasons in Hendrickson, fumbling a deal for one of the league's premier edge defenders in the process. They've seemingly caused a young edge presence in Sam Hubbard to choose retirement at 29 rather than sticking around to find out what his fate in Cincinnati will be, and they've made one of the seemingly more preventable contract errors with the first-round pick they used to replace the early retiree.
Not long ago the Bengals were brashly referring to Arrowhead Stadium as "Burrowhead", wth the attitude that the AFC was theirs. Now? They don't have a defensive player on the roster (who isn't in a contract dispute) who could say that without being laughed off of the internet. That, sadly, would still be the case if Mike Hilton were still on the team.
Things in Cincinnati are confusing. You have to think that this type of organizational ineptitude can be muted by having Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins on the offensive side of the ball, right? Sure, they didn't make the playoffs last year with that trio, but now it's Super Bowl or bust again, right? It's good to see that the Cincinnati Bungles have returned.
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