ESPN NFL analyst and ESPN radio host Chris Canty who played 11 seasons in the NFL, believes the Cincinnati Bengals are doing no favors for their rookie first-round pick Shemar Stewart. Cincinnati made Stewart the 17th overall pick in this year’s draft, but have not had him on the field to start his rookie year amid contract dispute between both sides.
Stewart joins veteran Trey Hendrickson as the top pass rushers for the Bengals who are both going through contract disputes, and both are nowhere to be found ahead of the team’s training camp in July. Getting his rookie season started on the wrong foot, Turner’s absence will loom large for Cincinnati, and Canty believes they are putting their rookie in an impossible position to find success early in his career.
“We used to see rookie holdouts all the time, but not under this new rookie wage scale,” Canty said. “Rookies back in the day would get $30, 40 million guaranteed, it’s a huge contract. Now it’s really rare to see rookie holdouts now, and when you do it’s usually guys in the Top 10 and the difference is offset language. This is something entirely different, this is the Bengals trying to set a precedent when it comes to the ability to void the guarantees in a rookie contract with a first round pick, which is something we’ve never seen. First round picks typically get their entire deal guaranteed.”
Canty would go on to say that not only is the situation an impossible one for Stewart, but that the Bengals are doing something never seen before and it’s not working for either side.
“Them putting in this language is a departure from what every other team in the NFL has done since the ratification of this new collective bargaining agreement. I don’t know what the Cincinnati Bengals are trying to prove but they are putting Shemar Stewart in an impossible position. He’s having to deal with the learning curve of jumping from college to pro, and he was a developmental prospect because there wasn’t a lot of high-level production as a sack guy at Texas A&M. I just don’t know why the Cincinnati Bengals are doing this, putting themselves behind the 8-ball when it comes to the potential investment in the first-round pick that they took.”
Cincinnati’s front office continues to be a talking point this offseason for all the wrong reasons. Having a contract dispute with Hendrickson, one of the best pass rushers in the league, is one thing, trying to set an entirely new precedent that no team has ever done before in the NFL, is another. The Bengals are going to need their top pass rushers on the field, so their front office is going to need to get a handle of things sooner rather than later.
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