{"id":123542,"date":"2025-06-12T08:17:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T08:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/123542\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T08:17:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T08:17:14","slug":"shemar-stewart-gets-surprisingly-candid-on-contract-dispute-calls-out-bengals-front-office-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/123542\/","title":{"rendered":"Shemar Stewart gets surprisingly candid on contract dispute, calls out Bengals front office"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now approaching the two-month mark since the 2025 NFL Draft<\/a>, Shemar Stewart<\/a> remains one of five unsigned first-round picks. The Cincinnati Bengals selected the former Texas A&M<\/a> pass rusher with the No. 17 overall pick and so far, it\u2019s been nothing but a rocky relationship. <\/p>\n

Now, Stewart is choosing not to participate in mandatory minicamp this week. Stewart is present but not practicing. The 21-year-old is frustrated by contract negotiations and called out the Bengals\u2019 front office on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 100% right. It should be a no-brainer,\u201d Stewart said, via James Rapien of Sports Illustrated<\/a>. \u201cIn Trey\u2019s [Hendrickson]<\/a> case it should be a no brainer, too. \u2026 I\u2019m not asking for nothing y\u2019all have never done before. But y\u2019all [Bengals] just want to win arguments more than winning games in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer<\/a>, the reason for the dispute stems from Cincinnati trying to set a new precedent with rookie contracts that allows the team to void guarantees. Stewart wants his contract language to mirror that of the Bengals\u2019 last two first-round pick picks, right tackle Amarius Mims<\/a> and defensive end Myles Murphy<\/a>. Stewart is adamant he will not practice until the contract situation is resolved. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for most of my whole life, and then all of a sudden it\u2019s gone over something very simple to fix,\u201d Stewart told<\/a> Conway. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cI can\u2019t say what I really want to say, but it\u2019s their contract. They can do what they want with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shemar Stewart not on the field at mandatory minicamp<\/p>\n

One of the most athletic players in this year\u2019s draft, Stewart had a lot of potential upside to entice NFL<\/a> teams. Stewart, despite his motor and elite speed and athleticism, recorded only 1.5 sacks per season in each of his three years in College Station. In three years at Texas A&M, Stewart recorded 65 tackles, 12.0 tackles for a loss, 4.5 sacks, two fumble recoveries, a forced fumble, a defensive touchdown and four passes defended.<\/p>\n

The Bengals saw a player with his best football ahead of him. Perhaps one half of a scary duo off the edge alongside Hendrickson. But like Stewart, Hendrickson is not taking part in mandatory minicamp. Hendrickson is not in attendance as he seeks a long-term contract.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s two Bengals defensive ends unhappy with their contract status. Time will tell when\/if these get resolved. With the start of the 2025 regular season rapidly approaching, head coach Zac Taylo<\/a>r is surely hoping it\u2019s sooner rather than later. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now approaching the two-month mark since the 2025 NFL Draft, Shemar Stewart remains one of five unsigned first-round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,6,15,29246],"class_list":{"0":"post-123542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-nfl-draft","11":"tag-shemar-stewart-22-monsignor-pace"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114669410462722619","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}