CINCINNATI \u2014 Bengals President Mike Brown searched for a word to describe what\u2019s become of the negotiation with first-round pick Shemar Stewart at the club\u2019s annual media luncheon on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
He paused for a moment before settling on one that felt spot on with the situation surrounding the lone unsigned first-round pick left in the NFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cSilliness,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
The words of director of player personnel and de facto general manager Duke Tobin left less to the imagination but offered a similar breath of exasperation from the organization with Stewart\u2019s representation, Zac Hiller, of LAA Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to blame Shemar,\u201d Tobin said. \u201cHe is listening to the advice he is paying for. I don\u2019t understand or believe or agree with the advice, but I\u2019m not the one paying for it. If I felt we were treating him unfairly as it relates to all the other draft picks in this year\u2019s draft, then maybe it would be a different story. But we are not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart was selected 17th by the Bengals in April. The battle with Stewart and Hiller began in earnest when they opted not to sign the practice waiver during the offseason program.<\/p>\n
Every other first-round pick signed the waiver that cleared them to participate without a contract, but Stewart stood on the sidelines while negotiations were ongoing.<\/p>\n
The central argument emanates from default language in the contract. The Bengals have language in the deal similar to most first-round picks across the league, but which they have not specifically used before with a first-rounder. The default language, one of the few negotiable elements in the slotted rookie contracts, was different for 2023 first-round pick Myles Murphy than last year\u2019s first-rounder Amarius Mims, and the club again wanted to alter it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re going to do is what all the other first-round picks got,\u201d Tobin said.<\/p>\n
The language looks to bring clarity to potential voiding of future guarantees if Stewart has a transgression that advances to significant disciplinary action from the league or beyond.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about the guarantee in the case of if you were to do something contrary to the discipline levels of the league that resulted in his being suspended or our saying we aren\u2019t going to accept that,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to happen ever. But that\u2019s what\u2019s holding it up. It\u2019s never happened as long as I can remember. His agent wants it to be so that if he acted in a terrible fashion \u2014 this is all hypothetical \u2014 something that rises to the level of going to prison, that we would be on the line for the guarantee for the future years that hadn\u2019t been paid. Our position is if that happens, we\u2019re not going to be. We\u2019re not going to be paying someone who is sitting in jail. That\u2019s not what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Hiller wants is for the Bengals to do what they did with Mims last year. That\u2019s where Tobin went specifically into explaining why that\u2019s not happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, everyone evolves but Cincinnati, is what you\u2019re saying,\u201d Tobin said. \u201cIt really doesn\u2019t make any sense to say that Cincinnati doesn\u2019t get to evolve their contracts, yet the rest of the league evolves their contracts. I don\u2019t buy into that philosophy at all. Contracts evolve. I\u2019ve been in it 30 years. They\u2019ve evolved every year for 30 years. They evolve in good ways for players. Signing bonuses go up. That\u2019s an evolution. Guarantees get extended further down the draft. That\u2019s an evolution. You can\u2019t just say you want the positive evolutions but yet the teams can\u2019t evolve their language to be clearer on the meaning that is actually agreed to, which is why other teams have done it. We\u2019re not asking for anything anybody isn\u2019t already doing. So do I feel badly about it? I do not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mims signed on July 22, 2024, but the difference in the two waits has been polar opposite. Mims practiced and became the story of the Bengals\u2019 draft class last year with how the inexperienced offensive tackle approached the position and immediately built trust, rising to a starter level despite a preseason injury. Stewart sat in front of his locker and took shots at the organization and front office during a lengthy session during minicamp.<\/p>\n
\u201cY\u2019all just want to win arguments more than winning games,\u201d Stewart said at the time.<\/p>\n