BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – For the first time since 2022, the Texas A&M football team can boast a first-round pick in the NFL draft.
Shemar Stewart went No. 17 overall to the Cincinnati Bengals, but as minicamp wraps up Stewart has yet to step on the field.
KBTX’s senior Texas A&M sportswriter Travis L. Brown digs deeper into a contract dispute with ESPN’s Bengals beat reporter Ben Baby.
“It’s a pretty unique situation here now to kind of put this into perspective, all rookie contracts are slotted much like they are in baseball,” Baby said. “What’s holding Shemar Stewart up from signing his participation waiver, which allows him to be on the field while negotiating some of the details of his contract.. is that he’s taking exception to some of the language in the rookie contract, specifically about potential voids on future guaranteed money. Talking to his camp, one of the biggest problems is that there seems to be an issue of the Bengals trying to set precedent with this rookie class.”
Contract disputes between rookies and teams are not new, even for first round picks.
“I don’t think that’s Shemar’s side is going to budge anytime soon,“ said Baby. ”The thing with the Bengals, and what makes a lot of people around the league very interested in this case, the Bengals are very hard nosed negotiators and do not typically budge on these things, so figuring out which side is gonna blink first, that’s gonna be fascinating and Shemar said, essentially, you know, he doesn’t want to take the field until this gets ironed out.”
Copyright 2025 KBTX. All rights reserved.