Cincinnati – Shemar Stewart and the Bengals have reached an agreement on his rookie contract, according to his agent, Zac Hiller of LAA. With this, Stewart becomes the latest first-round pick to sign. Stewart’s contract will be for four years, fully guaranteed, with a value of $18.97 million, including a signing bonus of $10.4 million, according to Hiller. Selected at the 17th spot in this year’s draft, Stewart will join the Bengals six days after the team’s rookies report to training camp. The agreement ends a situation that began shortly after Cincinnati drafted the former Texas A&M player. Stewart did not participate in any offseason workouts and was absent during the first week of camp due to a disagreement over language that could void the guaranteed money in the contract. Both parties reached an agreement to finalize the deal. Stewart will receive a more lucrative payment structure than previous selections at the number 17 position, in exchange for accepting the new language that the Bengals included in the team’s rookie contracts.
The Bengals’ director of player personnel, Duke Tobin, said he believed the Bengals were one of the last teams to insert such language into their rookie contracts. The other five players selected by Cincinnati signed in time for the team’s first practice on Wednesday. Linebacker Demetrius Knight, the team’s second-round pick, finalized his deal last Saturday. Stewart wasn’t the first player to have a delayed start due to a dispute over his rookie contract. In 2018, linebacker Roquan Smith missed several weeks of training due to a similar dispute over the void language in his rookie contract with the Chicago Bears. During the Bengals’ offseason workouts, Stewart did not sign the team’s participation waiver while trying to finalize a deal that was problematic from the start. According to a source familiar with the negotiations, Stewart was initially offered a lower training camp roster bonus than Amarius Mims, despite being selected one position higher than Mims in 2024. The Bengals still have a pending contractual situation. Defensive end Trey Hendrickson has not reported to camp, as he is hoping to get a new contract. He is entering the final year of his current contract and is scheduled to earn only $16 million despite coming off an All-Pro season.If I did something that really deserved a punishment, I would want the whole contract to be guaranteed and we would want to say that it is not guaranteed if you did something at that level. In that case, we would intervene and remove the guarantee.
Mike Brown, team president
