CINCINNATI \u2014 One day after signing his rookie contact, Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Shemar Stewart took the field for his first NFL practice on Sunday.<\/p>\n
While Stewart was the final Bengals’ draft pick to sign and criticized ownership while the negotiations were going on, coach Zac Taylor said that the organization can leave all of that contention in the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s part of being a professional,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cJust put it behind you. He\u2019s a part of our team, so we support him every step of the way now. You just put all that stuff behind you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart missed three practices before signing his rookie deal, and he also didn\u2019t participate in any of the Bengals\u2019 spring workouts.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, he went through some extra sets of drills with one-on-one instruction from defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery, was a full participant in position drills and then received about 10 reps in full-team drills against the first-team offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just needed to get on the field as soon as possible,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cI needed to start learning, start getting better. There is a long season ahead. I needed to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that he didn\u2019t have any regrets about the negotiation process. Stewart also defended his agent, Zac Hiller.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Shemar Stewart performs a drill during practice at the team’s NFL football training camp, Sunday, July 27, 2025, in Cincinnati. Credit: AP\/Jeff Dean<\/p>\n
Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin criticized Hiller last week by saying that Stewart was listening to the advice that he was paying for. Stewart said that he appreciated Hiller\u2019s approach in negotiations.<\/p>\n
Stewart\u2019s four-year deal is worth $18.97 million guaranteed, including a $10.4 million signing bonus.<\/p>\n
Stewart, the 17th overall pick in April\u2019s draft, and Hiller eventually agreed to the Bengals’ provision voiding future guarantees if there are any off-field incidents or conduct detrimental to the team. <\/p>\n
However, he received $500,000 more of his signing bonus now instead of later in the season.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cincinnati Bengals’ Shemar Stewart, right, signs autographs during practice at the team’s NFL football training camp, Sunday, July 27, 2025, in Cincinnati. Credit: AP\/Jeff Dean<\/p>\n
\u201cI want an agent that\u2019s more of a pit bull,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cI don\u2019t want an agent that can easily be pushed over. I want someone that\u2019s going to war (for) me, so I don\u2019t have to do any of the hard work behind the scenes. In terms of that, I think Zac is a great agent. He handles business very well. That\u2019s my dog for life.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the field, Stewart struggled with the heat as well as the new techniques from the Bengals coaching staff.<\/p>\n
At one point during practice, he poured water over his eyes only to find out that it was Gatorade. That stung his eyes, and he joked about it being a learning moment.<\/p>\n
During his first practice rep against offensive linemen, he got pushed back and spun around. That was another learning moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust get him out here and get him going with our fundamentals and with Jerry and all the things we\u2019re teaching,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cTomorrow we get the chance to put the pads on, to get a chance to feel what that feels like again. It\u2019s just good to go full speed with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart said that he hopes this week was a start of a long Bengals\u2019 career, and he\u2019s focused on the long game now that his contract has been signed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was never me vs. anybody,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cWe just didn\u2019t see eye to eye. At the end of the day, I\u2019m happy to be a Bengal. I\u2019m happy that I got drafted here. We have a long relationship ahead of us. There\u2019s no bad blood. It\u2019s just how things go sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014 One day after signing his rookie contact, Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Shemar Stewart took the field…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[41907,228,227,256,2296,7,6,2309],"class_list":{"0":"post-242381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-audio_enabled","9":"tag-bengals","10":"tag-cincinnati","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","12":"tag-cincinnatibengals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114930183492428869","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242381","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=242381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}