Bengals may have entered another contract waiting game after AFC team broke noteworthy precedent

Stewart and Knight are Cincinnati's first two selections from the 2025 NFL Draft. Both were taken with top-50 picks, and that status gives them leverage later picks don't have.

The same kind of leverage that has always worked against the Bengals: Guaranteed money. 

Stewart, the 17th overall pick, is in position to get a fully guaranteed contract. Minnesota Vikings EDGE Dallas Turner was taken with the 17th pick in the 2024 draft and every penny of his four-year, $15,766,862 rookie deal is guaranteed. 

Amarius Mims can say the same about his four-year, $15,371,558 contract the Bengals signed him to last year. Turner signed on July 21. Mims put pen-to-paper on July 22, two days before training camp officially began.

Cincinnati will do the same for Stewart. It's Knight's deal that may be a bit trickier.

New contract precedent may complicate Bengals' negotiations with Demetrius Knight Jr.  

Second-round picks have traditionally received guarantees for the first few years of their rookie deals, but a 100% guaranteed contract has never been offered to a player who just missed the first 32 picks.

Never until earlier this week.

Houston Texans wide receiver Jayden Higgins, the 34th pick in the draft, signed a fully guaranteed four-year, $11,700,824 deal Thursday. He's the first second-rounder to have all four years guaranteed entirely.   

Had Knight signed a standard contract for his draft status prior to Higgins, this may've become a non-issue. It's all up in the air now that it's in writing, isn't it?

Knight's agent may not be able to convince the Bengals that his client deserves the same treatment given he was taken with the 48th pick instead of the 34th pick. But there is an argument to be made that if one second-rounder has every cent guaranteed, then every second-rounder should accept nothing less. 

Cincinnati signed last year's second-round pick, defensive tackle Kris Jenkins Jr., by guaranteeing just under 70% of his contract including his $2,536,700 signing bonus. Only 66% of his third-year salary is guaranteed in 2026, and his fourth-year is not guaranteed in 2027. Jenkins was the 49th pick in the 2024 draft.

Logic states the Bengals have offered Knight a deal reminiscent of Jenkins' deal. It's not a given that Knight's camp is pushing for a fully guaranteed deal, but you can't count it out, either.

Rookie contract holdouts are very rare nowadays. Stewart and Knight will eventually sign as their rights are controlled by the team that drafted them. They just may wait until others drafted around them sign their deals first.

It's no coincidence Mims signed after Turner last year, and now with a curveball thrown into Knight's negotiations, there may be a waiting game there as well.