Bengals Not Budging in Shemar Stewart Contract Dispute

Saturday is the day for Cincinnati Bengals rookies to report to training camp, yet their top draft pick is still nowhere to be seen.

Former Texas A&M Aggies defensive end Shemar Stewart, whom the Bengals selected with the No. 17 overall pick in April, has been locked in a heated dispute with his new team due to specific language in his contract, and has not participated in offseason activities to this point. With rookies reporting on Saturday, there appears to be no end in sight to this dispute, as Stewart is now officially a training camp holdout.

It seems that the longer this dispute goes on, the uglier it gets.

Analyst Believes Shemar Stewart Contract Dispute is About Power, Not Money

In reporting on the situation, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio gave his opinion on how the Bengals have overplayed their hand in this dispute.

"For reasons neither known nor apparent (other than 'they wanted to'), the Bengals have changed the default language in their contracts to extend the consequences of voided guarantees to the balance of the deal," Florio wrote. "It’s a new term, and this year’s rookies are the Cincinnati guinea pigs.

"First-round edge rusher Shemar Stewart has refused to accept the new language without a fair concession. The Bengals refuse to make one. Their attitude has been 'take it or leave it' (or, more bluntly, 'shut up and play'). Stewart has left it, and he has not shut up. He’s now officially not with the team for his first training camp. The Bengals have failed to get a deal done. And they’ve shown no inclination to bend."

The Bengals have found themselves in numerous ugly contract situations over the past few years. Offensive lineman Amarius Mims was also the last first-round pick in his class to sign his rookie deal. Second-round linebacker Demetrius Knight only signed on Saturday. Most notably, reiging NFL sack champion Trey Hendrickson is also holding out as he seeks a new contract, and just like with Stewart, the situation gets uglier by the day.

The more times this happens, the more it reflects poorly on the Bengals as a franchise.

"The problem is that the Bengals don’t sufficiently care about working something out," Florio wrote. "They want Stewart to surrender.

"They’re prioritizing that power over winning. If they truly cared about winning, they’d come up with a win-win that would get Stewart in camp and get him ready to help the Bengals not stumble out of the gates."