{"id":22444,"date":"2025-05-09T22:34:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T22:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=22444"},"modified":"2025-05-09T22:34:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T22:34:31","slug":"bengals-first-round-pick-shemar-stewart-wont-participate-until-his-contract-is-signed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=22444","title":{"rendered":"Bengals&#8217; first-round pick Shemar Stewart won&#8217;t participate until his contract is signed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/3SgggjxSBmOofMYS.nE0Eg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTY0MDtoPTQ1MjtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/usa_today_sports_articles_558\/677866d2f9b120fce654e8b83bcf8876\" alt=\"Bengals' first-round pick Shemar Stewart won't participate until his  contract is signed - Yahoo Sports\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The\u00a0Cincinnati Bengals\u00a0and contract disputes are like two peas in a pod.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">It seems to happen every offseason, just with a different cast of characters.\u00a0Joe Burrow,\u00a0Ja&#8217;Marr Chase\u00a0and\u00a0Tee Higgins\u00a0have finally graduated out of contract purgatory, leaving just\u00a0Trey Hendrickson\u00a0as the lone veteran waiting for a deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">On the bright side for Hendrickson, he&#8217;s getting some company in the form of two rookies who were just selected by Cincinnati in the\u00a02025 NFL Draft\u00a0\u2013 first-round pick\u00a0Shemar Stewart\u00a0and second-round selection\u00a0Demetrius Knight Jr.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Both players were present at rookie minicamp on Friday, but watched from the sidelines thanks to what head coach\u00a0Zac Taylor said was contract stuff. They are the final players from the\u00a0Bengals&#8217; 2025 draft class who haven&#8217;t put pen to paper.<\/p>\n<p>Stewart, in particular, is an interesting development. The 17th overall pick is supposed to bolster the defensive line and add to a pass rush that may or may not have Hendrickson thanks to his own contract dispute.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2025\/04\/25\/USAT\/83260696007-usp-nfl-nfl-draft-2.jpg?crop=3499,1968,x0,y0&amp;width=660&amp;height=372&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">He addressed the situation on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;\u201cI just decided not to sign those papers,&#8221; Stewart told reporters, adding he hopes to have the situation resolved before Monday. &#8220;I hate being on the sideline looking at everybody else do work.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI just decided not to sign those papers \u2026 I hate being on the sideline looking at everybody else do work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bengals 1st round pick Shemar Stewart said he hopes to have his contract signed by next week.<\/p>\n<p>He did not participate in rookie minicamp today, but was present.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Bengals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Bengals<\/a>\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8HWqmL3ROV\">pic.twitter.com\/8HWqmL3ROV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Caleb Noe (@CalebNoeTV) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CalebNoeTV\/status\/1920877260564787702?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 9, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Contract disputes for rookies tend to happen every offseason, even if they are few and far between nowadays.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Rookie contracts in the NFL are slotted and for a fixed length of time, leaving little room for negotiation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In Stewart&#8217;s situation, he will end up with a four-year contract that eventually comes with an option for a fifth year because he was taken in the first round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Guaranteed money and offset language are the only two things for both sides to haggle over in this process. It&#8217;s unclear what the hold-up is with Stewart and how far apart they are.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">There is still a long way to go until training camp, however, so don&#8217;t sound the alarms just yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>usatoday.com wants to ensure the best experience for all of our readers, so we built our site to take advantage of the latest technology, making it faster and easier to use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cincinnati-bengals"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bengals&#039; first-round pick Shemar Stewart won&#039;t participate until his contract is signed - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=22444\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bengals&#039; 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