There’s a simple solution to the Shemar Stewart impasse with the Bengals

The Bengals and defensive end Shemar Stewart have a contract dispute that traces to very specific contract language regarding the potential voiding of guarantees. The Bengals, put simply, want to make it clear that a default committed in any year of the contract wipes out all future guarantees.

At least one person within the organization has told an outsider that the Bengals believe the existing language does the trick. Which invites an obvious response: Drop the issue and use the language from the contract signed last year by tackle Amarius Mims, the 18th overall pick in the draft.

The Bengals nevertheless insist on changing the language in the contract offered to defensive end Shemar Stewart, the 17th overall pick in the 2025 draft. In other words, the Bengals have an established practice that they now want to change.

Here’s how that works, in this context. To get the change they want, the Bengals need to offer some other change. It could be, for example, a minor change to the signing bonus payout schedule. It could be anything. Make a change to another term, and get the change they want.

For now, the Bengals are opting for stubbornness. It has caused Stewart to miss all of the offseason program. If they can’t get this worked out before training camp, he’ll be missing some or all of that, too.

Through it all, he’ll be less ready for Week 1 than he could have been. And that’s on the Bengals, especially since their recent practice has been to allow contract squabbles to keep guys from being as ready as they can be for the games that count.

And, as they learned in 2024, losing one extra game that counts is the thing that can keep a team from making the playoffs.

This problem could be easily fixed. With the Bengals, however, it seems nothing is ever as easy as it could be.