-
Ben Child
CINCINNATI — Shemar Stewart and the Bengals have agreed to phrases on his rookie contract, his agent, Zac Hiller of LAA, stated Friday, as he turns into the ultimate first-round draft choose to have signed.
Stewart will ink a four-year, totally assured contract value $18.97 million, together with a $10.4M signing bonus, Hiller instructed ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The seventeenth choose on this 12 months’s draft, Stewart is now set to hitch the Bengals six days after the staff’s rookies reported for coaching camp. Friday’s settlement ends a saga that began shortly after Cincinnati drafted the previous Texas A&M product. Stewart didn’t take part in any of the staff’s offseason exercises and was absent through the first week of camp due to a disagreement over language that might doubtlessly void the assured cash within the contract.
The 2 sides compromised with a purpose to get the deal finalized. Stewart will obtain a extra profitable payout construction than earlier picks at No. 17 in change for accepting the brand new language the Bengals positioned within the staff’s rookie contracts.
Earlier within the week, staff president Mike Brown detailed the extent to which the void language might come into play.
“I suppose if he did one thing that basically deserved punishment that he would need the entire contract assured and we might need to say, effectively it is not assured should you did one thing to that degree,” Brown stated Monday. “In that case, we might step in and take away the assure.
“Does not imply that we could not conform to pay it, however we would not be compelled to pay it. I do not need to pay any person who hypothetically could possibly be in jail for 4 years at this degree of pay.”
Bengals director of participant personnel Duke Tobin stated he believed the Bengals have been one of many final groups to insert such language into their rookie contracts.
Cincinnati’s different 5 draft picks signed in time for the beginning of the staff’s first follow Wednesday. Linebacker Demetrius Knight, the staff’s second-round choose, finalized his deal final Saturday.
Stewart was not the primary participant to have a delayed beginning interval due to a dispute over his rookie deal. In 2018, linebacker Roquan Smith missed a number of weeks of coaching camp due to an identical dispute over void language in his rookie cope with the Chicago Bears.
In the course of the Bengals’ offseason exercises, Stewart didn’t signal the staff’s participation waiver whereas he tried to hammer out a deal that was troubled from the start. In response to a supply aware of the negotiations, Stewart was initially supplied a lowered coaching camp roster bonus than Amarius Mims, regardless of being drafted one slot larger than Mims was in 2024.
The Bengals nonetheless have one excellent contract state of affairs remaining.
Defensive finish Trey Hendrickson has not reported to camp as he hopes to get a brand new contract. He’s getting into the ultimate 12 months of his present deal and is about to make simply $16 million regardless of coming off an All-Professional season.