The Cincinnati Bengals’ practice field felt unnervingly quiet Thursday morning. Not the focused quiet of intense preparation, but the loaded silence of absence. For Bengals fans, it dredged up ghosts of past standoffs. The specter of Bo Jackson’s baseball cleats, the lingering tension of Carson Palmer’s ultimatum. History whispered that when a premier talent and the front office lock horns, the echoes reverberate long after the ink dries. Or doesn’t.
“Yeah. Well, first of all, I really can’t imagine a head coach. There’s a couple of them, but not that many head coaches—having as many different weird crises or whatever the word is to talk about like Zac Taylor’s,” mused NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, painting the scene with wry disbelief. “I mean, he’s had so many things. And now his first-round draft-pick rookie, who they really like inside the organization, decides to stage a dramatic walkout. Very ‘Costanza-esque,’ like, it’s over. Goodbye.”
That rookie, Shemar Stewart, the Bengals’ 17th overall pick and a physical marvel fresh off a Combine performance that looked like a Madden create-a-player with every slider maxed out (4.59s 40 at 267 lbs? A 40″ vertical? C’mon!), was gone. Vanished from mandatory minicamp. Not over the money amount, mind you.
From The Insiders on @NFLNetwork: Explaining the situation surrounding #Bengals 1st rounder Shemar Stewart’s contract situation, after he bolted from minicamp today. pic.twitter.com/fSfPNviHge
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) June 12, 2025
This 6’5″, 267-pound defensive end, blessed with a Relative Athletic Score flirting with a mythical 10.0, wasn’t demanding more than the projected 4-year, ~$19 million rookie deal. The fight was in the fine print. Language around void years, bonus structures, and injury protection that Stewart and his agent, Zach Hiller, deemed unacceptable. It was a battle over clauses, not cash. Moreover, a refusal to sign what teammate Amarius Mims inked just last year for $15.37 million guaranteed.
Coach Zac Taylor, the man who orchestrated the Bengals’ return to relevance with back-to-back AFC title games, faced the media with a practiced calm masking palpable frustration. “He wasn’t here today, so we just focused on the guys that were here,” Taylor stated flatly after minicamp wrapped.
His comments on Stewart were a study in duality: praise for the rookie’s meeting room presence and learning (“positive conversations,” “done a good job”) mixed with the unmistakable sting of disappointment. “For all the rookies, you’d like them to be on the field,” Taylor admitted. “But certainly there are things that happen over the course of an NFL career, and this is one of them right now.”
Shemar Stewart isn’t alone in his contract stance. Veteran pass-rusher Trey Hendrickson, fresh off an All-Pro season with 17.5 sacks, is also absent, seeking a long-term extension. The locker room, embodied by center Ted Karras, understands the business but feels the weight of unfinished business.
Syndication: The Enquirer Bengals defensive end Shemar Stewart looks on during the Bengals Rookie Mini Camp on Friday, May 9, 2025 at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati. Cincinnati , EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xAlbertxCesare/ThexCincinnatixEnquirerx USATSI_26130288
“The main thing I want to say is I don’t think, to either of our defensive ends, that there’s not any harboring resentment in this locker room to them,” Karras offered, striking a conciliatory tone. “I really hope that both camps can figure this out because we have a really good team… you just don’t want this to carry over into the summer.”
“Now will it matter come training camp? I don’t know,” Rapoport conceded, leaving the door ajar. “But I imagine the teammates and the front office are at the very least taking note of this situation.” “See you in the summer, Shamar Stewart,” he added, a hopeful yet uncertain sign-off.
‘Clause wars’: Stewart’s stand-off puts Bengals’ culture shift to the test
“Let me try to explain what’s going on in this Shemar Stewart situation,” Rapoport continued, cutting through the noise. “The Cincinnati Bengals are updating their contract language. Not talking about the participation agreement—that’s over a different language issue—but they are updating their language contractually.”
he further mused “It’s the same one that Amarius Mims signed last year, same one that several other draft picks signed last year. And according to sources, several of the teams around them use the same language, but it’s different from what the Bengals have used in the past. Shamar Stewart and his agent Zach Hiller have opted not to negotiate on that, not to accept that language.”
The tension spiked earlier in the week. Stewart, Texas A&M’s leader in QB pressures (39) last year despite modest sack totals (1.5), didn’t mince words. “In my case, I’m 100 percent right,” he declared. “I’m not asking for nothing that’s never been done before. But in [the team’s] case, y’all just want to win an argument instead of winning more games, in my opinion.”
Public criticism of the front office? In Cincy? That’s like spiking the Skyline Chili pot. Taylor acknowledged the comments, emphasizing team protection. Also, calling Stewart’s approach his prerogative, but the message was clear. This wasn’t locker room chatter. He drew a line in the turf.
“The Bengals, to my understanding, have made several different offers and separate different options about how to update it, make it clear,” Rapoport noted, detailing the front office’s attempts to bridge the gap. “Those have not taken either. So where we are, Mark, is the Bengals’ first-round draft pick being dramatic and walking out of mini-camp.”
For Stewart, the kid who deadlifted 600 pounds in high school, this holdout isn’t just about clauses. It’s about principle, precedent, and protecting his future in a league where guarantees can vanish faster than a quarterback facing an unblocked edge rusher with a 1.58s 10-yard split.
For Taylor and the Bengals, it’s another ‘weird crisis.’ That too in a franchise striving to shed its past while navigating a present where elite athletic potential sits idle over contractual semantics. The Jungle waits, its signature ‘Who Dey?’ chant momentarily muted, hoping its newest potential predator rejoins the hunt before the real games begin.
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