Bengals player's brother shares an informed take on Shemar Stewart's contract situation with a revealing anecdote

Murphy was the 28th overall pick from the 2023 NFL Draft and signed his contract on May 12 of that year. There were no reports during that time of Murphy's camp identifying unfriendly language in his offer and working to get it removed from the deal, but the story around Stewart has reached the national level.

Stewart rejecting the verbiage, like Murphy presumably did, is the first step toward the Bengals removing it from the offer.

Verbiage is just about the only thing teams and agents can squabble over with rookie contracts thanks to the rookie wage scale. The Bengals are pushing for language that would put Stewart's future guarantees at risk if he were to violate said language, and including it in his contract would establish a precedent for future draft picks and such. 

"This is not a now money thing," Marquez said. "And when I say now money thing, I mean, this is not, ‘hey, we're disagreeing over funds that is going to come in today or tomorrow.’ These are things that we're disagreeing on that can affect him later on down the road. And I think a lot of people miss out on that because of, hey, if I sign this deal, I get this right now. But this is a longevity game. He's a human being. There is a life after football and down the road, sometimes a lot more important than what's right in front of your face."

It's worth noting that other NFL clubs utilize this language with their own player contracts, but the Bengals still stand largely alone in their unwillingness to guarantee future money to veteran players. Stewart is obviously not a veteran and his contract is going to be fully guaranteed as a first-round pick. It's simply a matter of whether or not those guarantees can be voided in certain ways. 

Murphy was able to fend off the precedent. Stewart is attempting to do the same.