Stewart is the lone first-round pick from April’s draft still unsigned, the result of an impasse over contract language related to the possible voiding of guarantees in what would be a four-year deal.
“Everyone’s goal is to play in the NFL,” Zac Hiller, Stewart’s agent and the CEO of LAA Sports & Entertainment, said by phone Wednesday. “Shemar was so excited to be drafted by Cincinnati. Hopefully he gets an opportunity to be a part of that city.”
Stewart has been working out in College Station, Texas, using the facilities at Texas A&M, where he played three seasons before being drafted 17th overall. He and his advisers are believed to be keeping all options open if the negotiating stalemate with the Bengals persists.
What’s holding up a deal?
It’s all about the language that could allow the Bengals to void the guarantees in Stewart’s contract based on possible misbehavior.
That is thought to be the only sticking point. There are relatively few contract details left to be negotiated by a team and a player under the NFL’s rookie pay system that was implemented as part of the 2011 labor agreement between the league’s team owners and the NFL Players Association.
Under the system, Stewart will sign a four-year contract that, as with other first-round picks, gives his team a fifth-year option. The value is not precisely determined by the rookie pay system but will fall within a narrow range. Stewart’s four-year deal with the Bengals would be worth around a fully guaranteed $19 million, between the $19.37 million value of No. 16 choice Walter Nolen’s contract with the Arizona Cardinals and the $18.47 million value of No. 18 selection Grey Zabel’s deal with the Seattle Seahawks.
Joel Corry, a former agent who is now a salary cap and contracts experts for CBS Sports, said the Bengals are at fault for attempting to get Stewart to agree to contract language the team generally has not utilized.
“He’s in the right because it doesn’t matter what other teams are doing with respect to their guarantees,” Corry said. “There isn’t any uniform, standard language for when guarantees void. There are little nuances between teams in terms of what triggers the void and what doesn’t. I understand what Cincinnati’s trying to do. But it’s your team convention. I wouldn’t want to be setting a new team precedent. What you did for last year’s pick should be fine. … That’s the language you want to go with.”
What do NFL rules say?
Bengals rookies are scheduled to report to training camp Saturday. The team’s veteran players are scheduled to report to camp Tuesday. Stewart, as an unsigned player, technically would not be a holdout and would not be subject to any fines for missing training camp days.
The Bengals are permitted to trade Stewart. But it would have to happen by early August. Under the sport’s collective bargaining agreement, the Bengals’ right to trade him expires 30 days before their Sept. 7 regular season opener at Cleveland.
If the Bengals have not signed Stewart by 4 p.m. Tuesday after the Week 10 NFL games, he becomes ineligible to play this season, barring a successful appeal to an arbitrator of “extreme Club or extreme personal hardship,” the CBA says. The Bengals would remain eligible until next year’s NFL draft to sign Stewart.
If Stewart sits out the season and does not play in another professional league, he would be eligible for next year’s NFL draft and the Bengals could not select him. But if he returns to college football this season, the CBA says, the Bengals would retain his rights as if they had selected him in next year’s draft.
What do NCAA rules say?
The NCAA declined to answer questions about Stewart’s situation, saying the organization doesn’t comment on specific eligibility cases or circumstances due to federal privacy laws.
If a player enters the draft before his college eligibility has expired and is selected, he has likely “jeopardized his NCAA eligibility,” according to an NCAA official. In the NCAA rule book, there is an exception that would allow a player to return to college after entering the draft, though it only applies if the player was not chosen by an NFL team. In that circumstance, the player would have 72 hours after the draft to declare he wants to resume his college career. That provision doesn’t apply to Stewart.
If Stewart indeed is ineligible to play in college football, he would have to challenge those rules — perhaps in court.
Texas A&M Coach Mike Elko told ESPN on Thursday there are “no intentions for Shemar to play for the Aggies” this season.
This is the first year in which schools are permitted to pay their athletes directly. So Stewart, under such a scenario, would not be playing for free. He also could earn money from name, image and likeness (NIL) deals. But while Stewart’s income as a college player could offset what he’d be losing by not beginning his NFL career, he would be delaying his eligibility for a more lucrative second NFL contract. Under the rookie pay system, a player becomes eligible for a contract extension following his third NFL season.
What’s at stake for the Bengals?
The Bengals drafted Stewart amid a contract dispute with four-time Pro Bowl pass rusher Trey Hendrickson, who led the NFL with his 17½ sacks last season. They have not yet resolved Hendrickson’s contract situation during an offseason in which they did sign wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to four-year extensions worth $161 million for Chase and $115 million for Higgins.
“This is a team that really can’t afford a slow start,” Corry said. “He [Stewart] hasn’t been participating in all the offseason workouts. You really need him [at training camp] as soon as possible to get him up to speed. And you have an issue with your other defensive end, who is your best defensive player. … You have a notoriously slow start every year. The easiest one to get done would be for you to table your changes until next year and get [Stewart’s contract] done for keeping the language as is, as it was last year and as it’s been for Higgins and Chase.”
The Bengals have had two straight non-playoff seasons after reaching the Super Bowl in the 2021 season, then getting back to the AFC championship game in the 2022 season. Even with such on-field success in the recent past, the franchise must combat the perception it is more interested in saving money than in doing whatever it takes to win. Bengals owner Mike Brown never has been known as a free spender. The Chase and Higgins deals came after star quarterback Joe Burrow publicly lobbied for the team to pay its key players suitably.
The path of least resistance remains that the Stewart deal will get done at some point. But the negotiations have put the team’s approach back under scrutiny.
“If you want something to change in the language, you have to offer me something in return,” Corry said. “To my knowledge, the Bengals are like, ‘Here’s the language as is.’ If you want him to take that language, compromise. Offer him something. Make a concession in some of other area if the language is that important to you.”
