After a prolonged absence in the low season, the defensive liner finally signed his contract with Cincinnati
CINCINNATI — Shemar Stewart and the Cincinnati Bengals They reached an agreement on their novice contracthis agent Zac Hiller of Laa announced Friday, becoming the last first round of the draft to sign.
Shemar Stewart He will sign a four -year contract fully guaranteed by 18.97 million, including a bonus to sign 10.4 million, Hiller told Adam Schefter of ESPN.
Shemar Stewartthe global selection No. 17 of this year will join the Bengals Six days after the team's rookies were presented to the training camp. This Friday's agreement ends a saga that began shortly after Cincinnati recruited the former Texas A&M player. Shemar Stewart He did not participate in any of the low season training of the team and was absent during the first week of the camp due to a disagreement about the text that could cancel the guaranteed money of the contract.
Both parties committed to specify the agreement. Shemar Stewart will receive a more lucrative payment structure than the previous selections in turn No. 17 in exchange for accepting the new clause that the Bengals They included in the team's rookie contracts.
At the beginning of the week, team president Mike Brown detailed to what extent the nullity clause could be applied.
“I suppose that if I did something that really deserved a punishment, that I want to guarantee the entire contract, and we would like to tell him that he is not guaranteed if he did something of that level,” Brown said Monday. “In that case, we would intervene and withdraw the guarantee.
“That does not mean that we could not accept paying it, but we would not be obliged to do so. I don't want to pay this salary to someone who could hypothetically be in jail for four years.”
The personnel director of the players of the BengalsDuke Tobin, said he thought the Bengals They were one of the last teams to include this type of clause in their rookie contracts.
The other five teams of the Draft Cincinnati They signed on time for the start of the team's first training on Wednesday. The Demetrius Knight supporter, selected in the second round, ended his contract last Saturday.
Shemar Stewart He was not the first player who delayed his arrival to a team due to a dispute over his rookie contract. In 2018, the supporter Roquan Smith lost several weeks of the training camp due to a similar dispute on cancellation clauses in his rookie contract with the Chicago Bears.
During the low season training of the Bengals, Shemar Stewart He did not sign the team's participation exemption while trying to close an agreement that was problematic from the beginning. According to a source familiar with negotiations, to Shemar Stewart He was initially offered a bonus for the training camp less than that of Amarius Mims, despite having been selected a position above than Mims in the Draft of 2024.
Los Bengals They still have a contractual situation to be resolved.
The defensive wing Trey Hendrickson has not appeared to the training camp, since he hopes to get a new contract. He is entering the last year of his current agreement and is scheduled to win just 16 million despite having had an All-Pro season.
