CINCINNATI — Shemar Stewart and the Bengals have agreed to terms on his rookie contract, his agent, Zac Hiller of LAA, said Friday, as he becomes the final first-round draft pick to have signed.
Stewart will ink a four-year, fully guaranteed contract worth $18.97 million, including a $10.4M signing bonus, Hiller told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The 17th pick in this year’s draft, Stewart is now set to join the Bengals six days after the team’s rookies reported for training camp. Friday’s agreement ends a saga that started shortly after Cincinnati drafted the former Texas A&M product. Stewart did not participate in any of the team’s offseason workouts and was absent during the first week of camp because of a disagreement over language that could potentially void the guaranteed money in the contract.
The two sides compromised in order to get the deal finalized. Stewart will receive a more lucrative payout structure than previous picks at No. 17 in exchange for accepting the new language the Bengals placed in the team’s rookie contracts.
Earlier in the week, team president Mike Brown detailed the extent to which the void language could come into play.
“I guess if he did something that really deserved punishment that he would want the whole contract guaranteed and we would want to say, well it isn’t guaranteed if you did something to that level,” Brown said Monday. “In that case, we would step in and take away the guarantee.
“Doesn’t mean that we couldn’t agree to pay it, but we wouldn’t be forced to pay it. I don’t want to pay somebody who hypothetically could be in jail for four years at this level of pay.”
Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin said he believed the Bengals were one of the last teams to insert such language into their rookie contracts.
Cincinnati’s other five draft picks signed in time for the start of the team’s first practice Wednesday. Linebacker Demetrius Knight, the team’s second-round pick, finalized his deal last Saturday.
Stewart was not the first player to have a delayed starting period because of a dispute over his rookie deal. In 2018, linebacker Roquan Smith missed multiple weeks of training camp because of a similar dispute over void language in his rookie deal with the Chicago Bears.
During the Bengals’ offseason workouts, Stewart did not sign the team’s participation waiver while he tried to hammer out a deal that was troubled from the beginning. According to a source familiar with the negotiations, Stewart was initially offered a lowered training camp roster bonus than Amarius Mims, despite being drafted one slot higher than Mims was in 2024.
The Bengals still have one outstanding contract situation remaining.
Defensive end Trey Hendrickson has not reported to camp as he hopes to get a new contract. He is entering the final year of his current deal and is set to make just $16 million despite coming off an All-Pro season.
